Shat the Movies: 80's & 90's Best Film Review: Better Off Dead (1985)

Better Off Dead (1985)

Feb 18, 2020

Listener John Enright asked Shat The Movies a year ago to put the Best of John Cusack up for a vote. Then he waited month after month and heard nothing: no "Say Anything," no "Grosse Pointe Blank," no "Sixteen Candles."

Fed up, Enright decided to grease the skis of justice with some hard-earned cash and three words everyone had been dying to hear: "Better Off Dead."

Big D nearly fainted. Gene Lyons squealed. Roger asked, "Is that the one with the boombox?"

"Better Off Dead" truly is a movie that would not get made today: a little-known short-film director named Savage Steve casting an obscure young actor in a lead role about teen suicide, featuring Korean drag racers who only speak Howard Cosell, possible exchange student sex slavery, and stop-motion dancing hamburgers? What could be more '80s?

This warm blanket of nostalgia took us back to Dick Ebert's childhood memories of collecting G.I. Joe Flag Points and throwing piss bombs from his third-floor video gaming nest. And it unearthed Roger's woeful tale of the breakup that ruined him for life.

Meanwhile, Gene tells listeners why jumping is a terrible way to kill yourself and Old Man Dick Ebert rails against paperboy Johnny and his quest for $2.

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