BETTER OFF DEAD (1985)

"Two dollars."

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.

ONE CRAZY SUMMER (1986)

This is the movie where the two little girls get slapped on the back while making ugly faces and their faces freeze.

Writer/director Steve Holland and star John Cusack follow the success of their first film together, BETTER OFF DEAD, the very next year with ONE CRAZY SUMMER the story of yet another teenage loser with girl problems.  This time around Cusack and his buddy have just graduated from high school so they head off for a relaxing vacation on Nantucket Island.  Along the way they pick up struggling singer Demi Moore, who was running from some bikers.  Once on the island they have to join forces with some other friends to save the one guy's grandma's house from an evil land developer and his douchebag jock son.  While all of this is going on Cusack has the hots for Demi, but the jocks sexy girlfriend has her sights set on Cusack.

Like BETTER OFF DEAD the comedy is pretty wacky, but unlike BETTER OFF DEAD it doesn't have a real soul and it's not even that funny.  There's some humorous moments, but over all it's pretty dated.  Older fans who grew up during the wacky comedy wave of the 1980's will probably still like it, but I just can't see newer audiences laughing at Bobcat Goldthwait screeching nonstop, a guy listening all summer to a radio station 24/7 in hopes of winning a contest or a guy named "Hoops" who can't play basketball.  The Nantucket scenery did look beautiful though.