Review of Better Off Dead... (1985) by Chris W — 08 Jul 2011

A good-for-almost-nothing teenager Lane Myer begins to lose his sanity when his girlfriend Beth dumps him for his all-rounder colleague Roy Stalin. He tries to win back her girlfriend by trying to improving himself and attempting to excel in skiing, but all in vain. Meanwhile, he gets acquainted with a French girl Monique who has come to live in his neighbor Ricky's house. Ricky's mother tries endlessly to force her into a relationship with Ricky. The girl doesn't know English, but has a crush on Lane. So this good-for-almost-everything French beauty decides to help him out..... (I've tried my best to exclude spoilers, but even if I did, just ignore it.).

It's a typical rom-com that gave me more yawns than laughs. The logic hardly has any place here. I might have appreciated it if, at the very least, it gave some sort of entertainment. But all it left me with was a few laughs and more boredom. I preferred to watch it over another movie because of its high rating and short duration. But little did I know that despite of such a short duration, it'd be tough to endure. One hour should have been tops for this one. There are numerous unwanted sequences while certain scenes are dragged (the party, skiing lessons, the boy following him almost throughout the whole movie for $2, etc.) unnecessarily. After a point, they don't appear funny any longer. All they do is add to the runtime of the movie and boredom for me (one of the most invaluable audiences).

The movie might have been highly adorable in its time, but I can't say it's aged well. Good for a few laughs if you have no better option. The only reason I've rated it this high (otherwise, it'd have been 1/5) is the remarkable performances by the lead actors that made it a far tolerable fare for more than what it might have been otherwise.