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Better Off Dead

Catalog Number
7083
-
Primary Distributor (If not listed, select "OTHER")
Release Year
Country
VHS | SP | Slipcase
97 mins (NTSC)
N/A | N/A | N/A
N/A | N/A
Cover Artist / Designer
Second Distributor
Better Off Dead (1985)

Additional Information

Additional Information
Insanity doesn't run in the family, it gallops.
You've blown up your neighbor's mom. Your seven-year-old brother has better luck with women than you do. Your girlfriend has a new boyfriend. Relax, you're never...
I have been going to this high school for seven years... I'm no dummy.
Teenage life has never been darker...or funnier...


The film received positive reviews from critics with an 82% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 22 reviews. The consensus was that "Better Off Dead is an anarchic mix of black humor and surreal comedy, anchored by John Cusack's winsome, charming performance."[1] However, Siskel & Ebert gave the film two thumbs down.[2]

According to Savage Steve Holland, Cusack did not like the film and walked out of a screening as both were making One Crazy Summer, later confronting Holland saying Better Off Dead "was the worst thing I have ever seen. I will never trust you as a director ever again, so don't speak to me." Holland claimed that Cusack felt he had been made to look foolish and that his comments "made me not care about movies anymore".[3] However, in a 2013 Reddit "Ask Me Anything" chat, Cusack, when asked if he hated filming Better Off Dead, responded, "No, I just thought it could have been better, but I think that about almost all my films. I have nothing against the film.... Glad people love it still

Release Date: August 23, 1985

Domestic Total Gross: $10,297,601

Domestic Total Adj. Gross: $25,091,300

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