Plot
A teenager has to deal with his girlfriend dumping him among family crises, homicidal paper boys, and a rival skier.

Release Year: 1985

Rating: 7.1/10 (20,167 voted)

Director: Savage Steve Holland

Stars: John Cusack, David Ogden Stiers, Kim Darby

Storyline
Lane Meyer is a depressed teen who loses his girlfriend Beth. Her given reason for breaking up is: "Lane, I think it'd be in my best interest if I dated somebody more popular. Better looking. Drives a nicer car." Anyway, poor Lane is left alone and thinks up treacherous ways of killing himself. He finally meets a French beauty called Monique and falls for her. Simultaneously, he must endure his mother's terrible cooking which literally slides off the table and his disgusting next door neighbour Ricky (and his mum) while he prepares for the skiing race of his life - to get his old girlfriend back!

Cast:
John Cusack - Lane Meyer
David Ogden Stiers - Al Meyer
Kim Darby - Jenny Meyer
Demian Slade - Johnny Gasparini
Scooter Stevens - Badger Meyer
Diane Franklin - Monique Junot
Laura Waterbury - Mrs. Smith
Dan Schneider - Ricky Smith (as Daniel Schneider)
Yuji Okumoto - Yee Sook Ree
Brian Imada - Chen Ree
Chuck Mitchell - Rocko
Amanda Wyss - Beth Truss
Curtis Armstrong - Charles De Mar
Aaron Dozier - Roy Stalin
Frank Burt Avalon - Roy's Ski Buddy #1

Taglines: You've blown up your neighbor's mom. Your seven-year-old brother has better luck with women than you do. Your girlfriend has a new boyfriend. Relax, you're never...

Release Date: 11 October 1985

Filming Locations: 1633 Virginia Avenue, Glendale, California, USA

Opening Weekend: $56,371 (USA) (25 August 1985) (13 Screens)

Gross: $10,297,601 (USA) (24 November 1985)

Runtime: 97 min

Trivia:
When Lane gets home from the dance, he opens his brother's door to find lovely ladies in his room, the camera angle is a classic scene from The Graduate - the lady's legs are spread so we can see the boy in the doorway admiring her.

Goofs:
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The math teacher tells Lane to show the class his solution to the "paltry geometric dilemma". A dilemma is a difficult decision - math problems can't have dilemmas, because they can't think. The correct word would be "conundrum".

Quotes:
Charles De Mar: This is pure snow! Do you have any idea what the street value of this mountain is?

The ultimate teen angst flick!

Rating: 10/10

If there was ever a role that John Cusack milked until it mooed, this one would have to have been it. His portrayal of Lane Meyer will forever be remembered in high school lore as the Ultimate Champion of the Underdog. I laughed so hard my sides ached and tears were running down my cheeks. What has long been a cult classic, this film did an excellent job of portraying the awkwardness of those teenage years that all adults thank God every day that we now have behind us. "Savage" Steve Holland's directorial debut was simply sensational; he could not have picked a better vehicle in which to make his mark!

Rounding out the cast includes Amanda Wyss as the fickle girlfriend who is more interested in her popularity than anything else; David Ogden Stiers (Major Winchester from M*A*S*H fame) as the dad who tries too hard to be "in", Kim Darby is priceless here as the mother who is completely, absolutely and utterly clueless, Scooter Stevens as Lane's little brother Badger is one ongoing surprise after another, and what is probably going to go down as BY FAR the most coveted film role in the 20th century, Demian Slade plays the paperboy from Hell. His portrayal alone makes the film not only worth watching, but worth buying! To close matters off in the casting department, the chemistry between Cusack and Diane Franklin – who plays the French foreign exchange student Monique Junot, is something that simply cannot be denied. Keep in mind however, that whatever you do – that like The Cable Guy – DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT take your eyes off that paperboy!

Cusack and Holland do a perfect job of capturing that period of time in the 1980's better than any other film of the period. This film is well worth an evening's entertainment. Rent it once, and then buy it, as you will want to watch it many times over. It took me SEVEN YEARS to find a copy in VHS. The DVD was just bought for $10.00 and change from from Wal-Mart.com. I highly recommend this film to one and all as a MUST-OWN!

On a scale of 1 to 10, I give this film a 12/10. ***

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