Can we just take time to appreciate this 80's masterpiece. They don't make quirky comedies like this anymore.

https://youtu.be/4SRjdibjQFU

No doubt it was a great movie. Cusak was such a good comedic actor in his youth. He rolled out this lineup:

Sixteen Candles
The Sure Thing
Better Off Dead
One Crazy Summer

between 1984-86. Then he just stopped acting in the genre.

He has a charisma to him but he seems like a chameleon with no real sense of self.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Cusack hated how better off dead turned out and was pretty pissed at savage Steve. I think he tried to get out of the contract that he was in for one crazy summer.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Cusack is also amazing in Say Anything, which came a few years later and inhabits the 80s teen film genre while simultaneously critiquing it.

I consider that movie to be both the apex and the epitaph for the genre.

Grosse Point Blank, another Cusack movie, is also a very effective satire of 80s teen films and the Reagan-era zeitgeist more broadly.

_________________

As a paperboy, I appreciated Better Off Dead more than most. Luckily, I delivered in an era where I did not have to collect the monthly fee.

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You

GPB also had a great soundtrack.

_________________
“Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.”- JD Vance
“My god, what an !diot.”- JD Vance tweet on Trump
“I’m a ‘Never Trump’ guy”- JD Vance

He's had some good movies but he would probably be twice as popular if he stuck to those charming comedic roles. Looks like his last successful mainstream movie was Hot Tub Time Machine 11 years ago. Curtis Armstrong as Charles De Mar deserves a shout out too!

I am a sucker for Booger. I actually love the Nerds in Paradise version where he meets his match, Snotty.

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You

me as well

It was either Booger or Harry Teinowitz getting those roles. I'm happy with the path fate chose at that fork in the road.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I appreciated it even more as a paperboy that had to collect the $1.90 a month for the what is now the Suburban Life. The way in which people dodged a pre-teen for 2 fucking dollars is now pretty comical to me. Not so much back then.

_________________
Mulli is Howard Stern in his prime compared to Haugh.

Grosse Pointe Blank and High Fidelity are peak Cusack. Identity was a solid turn too. So was 1408 now that I think about it.

_________________
'Your AT&T Universal Card has arrived'? Oh God, Kick-fucking-ass, I got a Master Card! I don't believe it, man. Life is kinda cool sometimes.