Tagline: Insanity doesn’t run in the family, it gallops.
Curiosity: It used to be a Comedy Central staple in my youth, although I’ve never seen the original version until now.
Plot: Lane (John Cusack) is kind of batshit insane. After his girlfriend Beth (Amanda Wyss, Nightmare on Elm Street) dumps him, he keeps attempting suicide. When he’s not trying to kill himself, he becomes increasingly absorbed realities of his own making. When in these states, he loses track of objects around him, causing fires and car collisions. But if he could just totally learn how to ski the K-12, Beth would maybe take him back, right? His pals Charles (Curtis “Booger” Armstrong) and Monique (Diane Franklin) are in his corner. Now if only he could believe… in himself.
Thoughts: I think I might have to file Better Off Dead in the “Lost Youth” category. That’s a special place reserved for films that I loved as a younger version of me, but kind of think are crappy now that I am a mature manly man, the kind that pronounces mature “muh-tour” and sticks his pinky out while daintily (FUCKIN’ DAINTILY!) sipping on beverages. Dead has a few things working against it, like the slapstick premise it brings to such dark topics as suicide and sexual assault. It doesn’t handle suicide with quite the finesse of Heathers, which was still a few years away, and the silliness presented makes it hard to believe. I enjoy the lighthearted elements – Lane’s mom (Kim Darby) uses insane cooking techniques, Johnny the newspaper boy (Demian Slade) and his assassin-like techniques have since been immortalized by the Bouncing Souls – but they clash too much with any attempts at black humor.
Also, I gotta say, I prefer the TV edit overall. Comedy Central excised some bits that don’t work that well from their broadcast, and I really could have done without Cusack mugging it up for a Frankenstein parody.
And yet… there are so many good quotes:
Reflection: Who knew boiling bacon turned it green?
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