“Better Off Dead” is not only arguably the funniest teen film ever made, it’s also one of the most hilarious comedies that I have ever had the joy of seeing. The picture skilfully blends comedy, romance, sports and animation.

Lane Meyer (John Cusack “Dragon Blade”, “2012”) is desperately in love with his girlfriend Beth (Amanda Wyss). However, she leaves him for the smug captain of the local skiing team. Heartbroken with no clear purpose in life, Lane repeatedly tries to kill himself before deciding that he must try to win her back and demoralise his rival by winning a skiing race. Along the way, he must deal with various other whacky individuals.

The young Cusack does an excellent job as Lane. We really want to see Lane get his life sorted after being devastated by the end of his relationship. There are so many fun characters in this film that it’s hard to remember them all. There’s Lane’s mother (Kim Darby “True Grit”), who has some of the worst cooking skills I’ve ever seen. I also really liked the two Asian brothers that always want to street race against Lane. I of course cannot forget about the dastardly paperboy that will stop at nothing to get Lane’s money. The rest of the characters are great too.

“Better Off Dead” is truly a great movie that balances romance and humour. It also has some rather creative animated sequences. This is a really underrated film and I can understand why. It’s very similar to a lot of other movies from the era so I totally get why it went under a lot of people’s radar. There are just so many hysterical moments packed in here that I just had a big smile on my face the whole time watching it. It’s definitely worth seeing if you like Cusack, sports/comedies or teen comedies.