Better Off Dead

Better Than Nothing - finally on DVD 7/2002
It's finally here, and although it doesn't cost $2.00, it's better than nothing (if you caught that reference, you're a fan and will buy it now).

I won't go into plot and such - you already know about the movie's merits (or can find them online easily). This review will concern the region 1 (USA) DVD release that came out 7/16/02 at long last! retail around $20-25 USD.

One note: I had trouble finding this on release day - the local "big box" boys all told me they had "a copy on order or something"... I guess they didn't anticipate a big demand for this wildy funny 1985 cult comedy.

DVD Special Features: Widescreen enhanced for 16:9, English Subtitle Option, Dolby Digital & "English Stereo" (whatever that means). No foreign language tracks, outtakes or even a trailer. No stills of the cast or bios.... nada. Zip. Zero.

Initial Impressions: This DVD is truly a bare-bones production from start to finish. I actually thought the audio track was absent at first, due to the lack of...

Come back, Savage Steve!
As the years go by, I find myself growing more and more convinced that the '80s were the last true golden age for that often-maligned genre, the teen sex comedy. Whereas now Hollywood shells out a small fortune to finance a Britney Spears soundtrack for films starring young men who make Frankie Avalon look complex (and featuring actresses who seem to have copied Annette Funnicello's bust but none of her own admitedly simple charm), the '80s were usually made with low budgets, up-and-coming young actors who at least seemed to be having fun, scripts that were too joyfully crude to ever be considered truly offensive, and directors who seem to have vanished at the decade's in. My own personal favorite amongst these directors was "Savage" Steve Holland (Is that a perfect '80s name or what?) who defined the entire decade with just two films -- One Crazy Summer and especially Better Off Dead. Both of these films display Holland's crazed, gloriously strange wit, his penchant for...

Better Than Ever!
I don't know what people were expecting to see or hear with Better Off Dead on blu-ray. High definition does not translate to a miraculous transformation. It simply allows you to experience more closely what the source elements have to offer. In the case of Better Off Dead, it had a very low budget and was made very quickly. The filmmakers weren't concerned with how great the shots could be artistically, since it's a screwball comedy for teenagers. The low quality 80's film stock that was used wasn't great with detail, depth, or color, and was quite unstable. The film's soundtrack, which was originally in mono, was created with basic sound effects and design, because that's all the budget allowed for. The film will never look amazing no matter how much restoration is done to it and it'll never sound amazing unless an entirely new sound mix with new sound effects is created. It is a product of its low budget source limitations and unless you accept that fact, you will be greatly...

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