"Better Off Dead"
So following the Knicks debacle last night, I needed something to take my mind off the game. Flipping though cable, I found nothing good in the "rewatchable comedy" category. None of my DVDs were calling out to me. So I made a reach for my two bins of VHS cassettes and pulled out the first chapter of the unofficial John Cusack 80s trilogy (Unofficial in that the three movies have nothing to do with each other, Cusack plays a different character in each and the first two (BOD and One Crazy Summer) are written and directed by a different person than the third (Say Anything). Having seen the flick a million times on HBO and the old WPIX Channel 11, it seemed like a suitable movie to drift away to sleep to. Some interesting things I noticed:
1) Cusack's character is quite possibly one of the most unlikeable protagonists in a comedy until he meets up with the French chick. I was almost rooting for him to actually succeed in killing himself at points.
2) Beth, the object of his desire/torment, really isn't that hot. In fact, considering his later love interests (Demi Moore, Ioni Skye, etc.) Cusack is downright slumming it. The French chick is a bit cuter but nothing to write home about.
3) The cast doesn't hold up in the least these days. Beyond Curtis "Booger" Armstrong and the guy who played Porky, there's nary a recogniseable actor still prominent today. The closest one is Ricky (Dan Schneider) who's now a fairly successful TV writer/director for Nickelodeon shows.
4)In the veritable rogue's gallery of 80s tough, Roy Stalin is probably one of the worst (and I don't mean bad meaning good. he sucks). His big insult? Calling Lane Meyer "Oscar Meyer". That's degrading? Humiliating? Billy Zabka would have made Stalin his bitch. Unsurprisingly, this was the actor who played Stalin's only known movie.
5) Totally forgot about one of the funniest lines of the film until it came up. When Lane jumps off the bridge into a garbage truck, the exchange between the two black guys cracked me up. Black/white political humor at its pinnacle.
1) Cusack's character is quite possibly one of the most unlikeable protagonists in a comedy until he meets up with the French chick. I was almost rooting for him to actually succeed in killing himself at points.
2) Beth, the object of his desire/torment, really isn't that hot. In fact, considering his later love interests (Demi Moore, Ioni Skye, etc.) Cusack is downright slumming it. The French chick is a bit cuter but nothing to write home about.
3) The cast doesn't hold up in the least these days. Beyond Curtis "Booger" Armstrong and the guy who played Porky, there's nary a recogniseable actor still prominent today. The closest one is Ricky (Dan Schneider) who's now a fairly successful TV writer/director for Nickelodeon shows.
4)In the veritable rogue's gallery of 80s tough, Roy Stalin is probably one of the worst (and I don't mean bad meaning good. he sucks). His big insult? Calling Lane Meyer "Oscar Meyer". That's degrading? Humiliating? Billy Zabka would have made Stalin his bitch. Unsurprisingly, this was the actor who played Stalin's only known movie.
5) Totally forgot about one of the funniest lines of the film until it came up. When Lane jumps off the bridge into a garbage truck, the exchange between the two black guys cracked me up. Black/white political humor at its pinnacle.
posted by Mike at 12:07 PM
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