Rating: PG
Genre:
Comedy
Release Date: 08/05/2008
SubTitles: English
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD2
Run Time: 97 Minutes
Flags: Adult Situations, Questionable for Children, Adult Language, Adult Humor
Distributor/Studio: Paramount
Most animation aficionados of the 1990s know "Savage
Steve Holland" as the cocreator (with
Bill Kopp) of the all-stops-out TV cartoon series
Eek! The Cat. But
Holland had been exercising his own peculiar brand of deviltry on live characters long before
Eek! came into being. In
Holland's
Better Off Dead,
John Cusack plays a lovestruck teenager, hopelessly enamored with
Amanda Wyss. When she dumps him in favor of a more popular high-schooler, the boy's entire day quickly goes to Hell. In the words of
Hamlet, all occasions do inform against
Cusack: he is bullied, tormented and torn apart by everyone from the paperboy (who seemingly turns up everywhere) to the disembodied voice of a radio deejay.
Cusack attempts suicide, but his efforts are just as unsuccessful-and amusing-as
Bud Cort's in
Harold and Maude. Meanwhile, French exchange student
Diane Franklin, held a virtual prisoner by her host family, develops a long-distance crush on
Cusack.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide