Jonathan Capogrossi at 2014-12-08 20:51:02:

This is my favorite comedy film ever made.I am not saying it's the greatest comedy film ever made, just that it's my personal favorite. I think that's a distinction that (I think) most fans of this film could agree with. Yes, true, there's a lot of oddball, surreal humour. And, yes, I was a teenager in high school myself when this film came out, so there's a lot of nostalgia there also...remembering watching this movie with freinds and cracking up. However, I'd really say the main reason this film remains my favorite comedy is that this film really did have a sort of innocence and decency about it, even as it had what many have referred to as a dark subject matter (main character seeming to be attempting suicide)...I can only speak for myself, but to me, at no time watching this comedy film did I ever think Lane Meier would actually kill himself...You just get the feeling that the hand of Providence will somehow keep this character going. Far from it being "pathetic" that Lane Meier keeps failing at his varied attempts to "end it all", it instead seems more to me (as a fan of this film) that God is intervening and thwarting these attempts. That might be a heady statement to make about a screwball comedy for teens from the 80's. However, I think that somehow the way this film was written & directed by Savage Steve Holland, and, in many ways, the way the genius of a youthful John Cusak sort of took this wacky film and carried it on his shoulders as the ultimate "straight man" in the face of hillarious absurdity...that all together is what makes this a great film. It's the youthful optimism and innocence that this low budget film somehow showed, that to me makes it the best 80's comedy film. To me, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, while CLOSE, is just a few inches below Better Off Dead in it's status as the best 80's comedy film. To me, in many ways, Lane Meier is like the "equal but opposite mirror image" of Ferris Bueller in some way...For Ferris Bueller, everything somehow turns out right- For Lane Meier, it seems like everything he tries turns out wrong. Maybe that's also why us fans of Better Off Dead have been fans for so long....Ferris Bueller is who we would have liked to be like, whereas Lane Meier is who we often identified with more. Some may say I'm reading way too much into this (once again) low budget 80's comedy, but I still am a huge fan of this film. "I..want..my..TWO..DOLLARS!!" Gotta love it.