Rating of
1.5/4
"Better Off Dead" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 01/22/12
A high school student loses his girlfriend to an obnoxious jock and sets about winning her back. Better Off Dead is a clear attempt to jump on the John Hughes bandwagon, containing the same mix of half-hearted surrealism, "growing pains" and nerds vs jocks storyline. Some of the jokes have stood the test of time, but the majority has not fared so well. It's all a bit too obvious (the ever likeable Cusack argues with his own cartoons, bad-cook-mom's food crawls off the plate etc etc) and the whole "learning to love the hottie under my nose while I'm trying to win back the bimbo" formula is beyond tired. A bit amateurish and very dated, this film probably stirs fond memories from people who saw it at the time but a re-visitation reveals it to be little better than Saturday morning sitcom standard.
