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Released: 1985

Version: Video

Length: Approx. 98 min.

Rated: PG-13

Main Cast: John Cusack, David Ogden Stiers, Kim Darby, Diane Franklin, Curtis Armstrong, Laura Waterbury, Scooter Stevens.

If you’re familiar with the cartoon "Eek, the Cat," then you’ll have some idea of the kind of humor in this film. Why? Because they’re both done by "Savage" Steve Holland. Anyway, the humor is droll and you have to kind of watch for some of it.

We begin by finding out that Lane Myer (John Cusack) is obsessed with his girlfriend. His parents Al (David Ogden Stiers) and Jenny Myers (Kim Darby) are discussing this fact and we hear them as we watch Lane awake and wander his room, which is filled with pictures of his girl. In fact, his clothes have cut-out heads of her attached to the hangers. But before this happens, his father gets up to raise the garage door. Why is this important? Why, because the paper boy (Demian Slade) likes to throw his paper through the garage door windows.

OK. Lane goes to a mountain to compete with some jocks to get on a ski team. He doesn’t qualify and his girl, Beth Truss (Amanda Wyss), dumps him. Now we begin to understand the name of the film. Lane tries to kill himself a couple of times to get his ex-girlfriend’s attention. It’s dumb! I should probably mention that his girl chooses a jerk ski-jock by the name of Roy Stalin (Aaron Dozier).

Well, we go through some odd scenes where Lane goes for a drive and has to race these two Asian guys. One of them acts as an announcer and I think these scenes (there’s three of them) are kind of funny. We also see Lane answer the door and find Johnny, the paper boy who wants three dollars for the subscription. This turns out to be a recurring "joke" in the movie as the paper boy chases Lane around.

We’re also treated with flashbacks of how Lane met his ex-girl (weird stuff here), and what he did with her (dumb stuff!). Lane gets a job at a burger joint that looks less than sterile, to put it mildly. He goes into a trance and thinks he’s Dr. Frankenstein and ends up creating a live hamburger. Thus, we watch a little stop-motion animated burger (and friends) do a song and dance thing. This is, of course, all in Lane’s imagination and when his boss comes in, we see that Lane has made a big mess.

A French exchange student (named Monique Junot, played by Diane Franklin) moves in across the street and wants to meet Lane. Unfortunately, the family she’s living with is very dysfunctional. There’s a big fat teen named Ricky Smith (Dan Schnieder) there who keeps trying to get her to like him and his mother (Laura Waterbury) has the same intentions. Eventually, Lane does meet her at a party and that entire family ends up coming over to Lane’s house for dinner. Lane was going to try to kill himself right before dinner (he didn’t know they were coming) and gets yanked in. He was going to douse himself with some flammable liquid…anyway, the stupid lady from across the street ends up drinking the stuff and blowing up! (She ends up with a bandaged face…)

I should have mentioned this earlier, but I didn’t. Lane has a younger brother named Badger (What's up with that?) (played by Scooter Stevens) who seems to be a genius. He makes working lasers and whatnot. Watch for the spaceship scene…that’s all I’m going to say about it.

Lane also has a weird friend, Charles De Mar (Curtis Armstrong) who sounds just like "Eek, the Cat." This friend is always trying to get high, but not on drugs. He’s always snorting weird stuff to get his high. Watch as he snorts jello and snow…yuck! He does make for some great comedy relief!

Well, Lane and Monique get together and she helps him feel better about himself. They get his Camaro running and beat the Asian guys. Lane also out-skis his ex-girl’s new boyfriend on one leg, yet! Of course, he was being chased by the newspaper kid on his bike, but that’s neither here nor there.

He also gets into a duel with Ricky the fat kid who wants Monique. Of course, Lane wins. But the fat kid meets a geeky looking girl and falls for her, so everybody ends up happy.

This movie is funny. For the most part, it’s clean too, but it’s kind of a dark film. Admittedly, it’s also kind of dumb. But I like it. Watch at your discretion.

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