High schooler Lane Myer (John Cusack) is hung up on his girlfriend...bad. So when she dumps him for the captain of the high school ski team, Lane at first tries to kill himself, but then after multiple failed attempts decides the best way to win her back is by skiing down the deadly K-12 faster than the ski captain douchebag. While he's training for the big ski showdown, he has all kinds of misadventures. Everything from eating his mom's bizarre cooking to giving a duck a ride to school to getting a job at a seedy hamburger joint to finally sexing up his sexy foreign exchange student neighbor.
Dancing cheeseburgers, an insane paperboy, mom's food coming alive and crawling off the table, a working laser gun, a drag racing Japanese guy who announces the race in a Howard Cosell voice through loudspeakers attached to the top of his car, skiing down a mountain on a bicycle, solving a life crisis with a skiing contest...this movie's got some crazy shit going on, but instead of come off as completely over the top like in an AIRPLANE!-style, BETTER OFF DEAD seems more like the imagination of a teenager come to life. I was in middle school when BETTER OFF DEAD came out and it totally clicked with me. I probably wore my VHS tape straight the fuck out.
Watching it now, it's a little dated, but got a lot of clever stuff going on. Recommended for the young at heart.
