'Better Off Dead' The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, October 30, 1985- Page 7 comes to life ByRuth Ann Weadock I N A WAY, Better Off Dead is a movie that could easily live up to its title. It is riddled with too many stereotypes and an utterly predictable plot. Filling in the gaps, however, is the delightfully entertaining John Cusak as Lane Myer, a "not-quite- normal" high school guy (presumably a senior, but when do movie highschool kids ever look their ages?). Let's wade through the movie's problems. Yes, Lane's parents are supposed to be "not-quite-normal" (where else would the kids get it from?), but the caricature is carried past the point of comedic effec- tiveness when Mom's awful meals/concoctions squirm off Lane's plate, or, in another case, flail their tentacles from out of the huge pot she's stirring. Though the mother's character is the type to buy TV dinners and wrap them as Christmas presents for her family, this does not entail the in- curable streak of meekness that Kim Darby seems to relish in playing the role. The subservient housewife Jen- ny is always apologetic and helpless at the mercy of the chaotic world around her. Al Myer played by David Ogden Stiers is merely bewildered. He is a frustrated man; his younger son cuts out the sides of the cereal boxes (every one) and all the contents fall out when Al wants some breakfast. Every morning the paperboy gives him nightmares of garage windows broken by newspaper missiles - which in turn jolt him awake causing him to run down and open the door before the little demon arrives. But Stiers overacts the father's cynicism. Laboriously down-playing the well-known Boston accent, he creates, for the most part, a listless, almost whining bore who stresses the "ooh" sound too much in words like "school" and "ritual." Concerning the plot: Goofy boy stumblingly meets gorgeous, class- conscious blonde. They go out. Girl eventually drops boy for ski team cap- tain. Depressed boy meets introspec- tive and inspirational brunette. Boy gains new confidence and overcomes his Problem(s). The above reveals nothing that the average viewer of average moviegoing experience could not foresee in the first 15 minutes of the film. Surprisingly, two redeeming elements of Better Off Dead effec- tively shellack its flaws: Not quite a member of the Brat Pack, though he was featured in both Class and Six- teen Candles and had the lead in The Sure Thing, John Cusak manages to evade pretty-boy trappings and ultimately delivers a credible per- formance. It is not easy to be really funny if your scene calls for brushing your teeth while poking Q-tips into your ears, nose, and mouth. Cusak knows how to affect a subtle charm; in this case it's through an otherwise insignificant hand-wave of greeting to his father who unfortunately decides to check on his son. Director Savage Steve Holland is also largely responsible for saving this movie. By the time the audience begins to see the absurdity of a situation, the camera has cut to another equally off-the-wall incident. This quick pacing nudges the action just ahead of the viewer's laugh, creating an almost Blues Brothers comic genius. Don't look for new revelations on the universal trials and tribulations of growing up and falling in love in Bet- ter Off Dead. This is a featherweight film but it tickles your funnybone. UACISOUNDSTAGE, together with the NESTLE Corp. present a HALLOWEEN DANCE BASH with THEDETROIT PANIC 9 P.M., Oct. 31, 1985 U-Club, Michigan Union Come in costume... if you dare! Substantial prizes to be awarded The university club is a pnate club for students, faculty, staff. aluni, and thteir accompanied guests. Only members may purchase alcohol. This is the typical American family as portrayed in 'Better Off Dead.' It stars David Ogden Stiers and John Cusak. Records Big Audio Dynamite - This is Big Audio Dynamite (CBS) Joe Strummer and his orange mohawk better watchout 'cause Bad Ass Mick Jones and his band of dread- locked gangsters have pulled into town and they're BAD as hell. They call themselves Big Audio Dynamite, and their debut LP, This is Big Audio Dynamite is full of those funk and reggae rhythms which Strummer accused Jones of polluting the Clash with. However, the reggae and funk sounds of B.A.D. are quite differenet from those offered by the Clash. This reggae doesn't have the raw edge that the Clash reggae had. Mainly it doesn't have Joe Strum- mer's grating voice, which is about as smooth as sandpaper. Also, for the most part, B.A.D. shys away from the pounding drums, and booming and scratchy guitars of the Clash - which were so evident in songs like "White Man in the Ham- mersmith Palais" and their cover of the Maytals' "pressure Drop." But even when the Clash did songs as steel band oriented as "Let's Go Crazy," Stummer's gnarly voice was always there to remind us that the Clash was not a reggae band. B.A.D., however, is a reggae/funk band. There's bongo playin', toasting, and rapping. The brash music of the Clash, which complemented the con- viction of the lyrics, is absent in this band. This doesn't moke B.A.D. bad, just different. B.A.D. is Mick Jones' excuse to be Clint Eastwood. I mean, why wait un- til Halloween. C'mon Mick, what's the deal with that cowboy hat, the stick of dynamite, and all that gunfire? Six shooters and machine guns rattle on no less than three of the album's eight songs. Also, sound effects from The Good the Band and the Ugly, along with references to and voices of the 01' West pop up all over this album. On the album's first cut, "The Medicine Show," a hanging judge of the wild frontier drawls out the death sentence to one of those black-hatted bad guys. In "E-MC'," an English bloke asks Jack the Lad, "Who do you think you are? The Lone Ranger?" The album opens with the delightful pop-reggae "The Medicine Show." The crisp guitars, the "Version City" sounding harmonica, and the poppy keyboards work together to make this one of the ablum's most enticing cuts. "The Bottom Line" is sort of like the socio-economic version of "I'm Not Down." Against a backdrop of economic decline Mick offers some "we shall overcome" optimism: When you reach the bottom line The only thing to do is climb Pick yourself up off the floor Anything you want is yours. The pounding drums, clattering drum box, and clanging guitars make this the most uplifting song on the album. The anti-imperialistic "A Party" is about as reggae as you can get. Don Letts, Jones' new writing partner, and his toasting drives this, and is a great compliment to Jones' lyrics and vocals which lash out at British ex- ploitation of Africa: Some things never change Cor- porate crime gets free range Only out for personal gain Grab the land and seize the power Apparently Jones is still anti-drug as the funky "Sudden Impact" suggests. This tune always seems on the verge of breaking into a Herbie Hancock song. Even the lyrics are way Funkville: Party down - Eat your friend...Rock the house- Shoot your mum... "Stone Thames," the album's best cut, bops all over the place. Bongos, raunchy guitars, scratch-mastery, and classic lyrics about some of our favorite social diseases make this song driiiiive: Now to sexual relations Better take a wife Now that sex is death Better lead a boring life No time for social kissing You'll hardly raise a smile When you think what you'll be missing Iron undies back in style. Mick oughta send this one to Ann Landers. The album ends with the Run DMC style "BAD," which is rapped out by Letts. "BAD" is a list of things that drive Don and Mick crazy. Clint Eastwood pops up on this list, but Mick can't fool me - he's a fan. This is a Big Audio Dynamite, aside from minor problems like oc- casionally overdoing the sound effects and vocal overdubs - and a couple of decent, but far from spectacular songs like "Sony" and "E=MC" - is a pretty darned tasty album. In any case pardner, this album is worth having if for no other reason than owning a picture of Mick Jones in a cowboy hat while holding a stick of dynamite. -Danny Plotnick Kurtis Blow - America (Mercury) Kurtis Blow was the first rapper I ever heard. Way back in the late '70s he cut a song called "The Breaks," which was one of the first songs to popularize rap music. He followed it up with "Christmas Rappin"' and seemed, at the time, to be the definition of the cutting edge in black music. While most bands were tiredly rehashing the by-then cliche funk of bands like the Ohio Players, Blow was inventing, and he can legitimately claim a degree of responsibility for the eventual popularization of rap music. His latest record, America, is by contrast shockingly conservative. Perhaps the most offensive and disheartening example of Blow's deterioration is the title track in. which he swipes shamelessly from rap hits of the past two years. Rap is generally a medium in which ideas are recycled, but there's no excuse for the brazen thievery from Time Zone's "World Destruction." There's also no excuse for the lamest chorus of any rap song ever, in which Blow claims that America is his favorite country in a voice so thin and passionless that one suspects he may have been lobotomized. It is unforgivably bad. The rest of the album is filled with forgettable underachievements. Only "AJ is Cool," approaches respec- tability. "Super Sperm," a brainless exercise in synthesizer noise is without question my nominee for wor- st record cut of the year. Kurtis Blow has moved from the cutting edge of black music to tired rehashes of works that are innovative, but Blow is such a lousy rehasher that he is unable to maintain even a trace of the sparks that drew him to rehash them. But I sort of like the cover. It's ugly, yet powerful in an odd way. A map of the United States is superimposed on stars and bars, and each of the in- dividual States is cut from a newsy or arty-type photograph. The selection of photos, and the associations they suggest are much more thought .I PASS IT AROUND! Share the news, provoking than anything on the record itself. It's gutsy, political, and in- teresting, and it's too bad that the cover is wasted on an artist who is timid, apathetic, and boring. -John Logie I Bird Of Paradise JAZZ CLUB The Bird of Paradise Ann Arbor's Only Jazz Club Located at 207 South Ashley 6624310 Featuring: LIVE JAZZ ENTERTAINMENT Seven nights a w~eek 9:00 P.M. - 1:30 A.M. BUT We're not just. a nightclub. Come join us Monday-Friday, 5 P.M.- 8 P.M. for . Happy Hour Drink Specials * After work Snacks ALSO. Wed.-Friday & Football Saturdays Live Music 5:30 P.M. - 7:30 P.M. I say..i e n~ "miemne q " "DISOUT MUFFLERS AME RICANDANO FOREIGN CAR SPECIALIST FROM AS * FITS MANY Instlledby _LOW S...SMALL CARS "nstalled by w ssa c s Trained * RTIC PATIN specialists DEALERS nstailed Featuring... ,One of the finest na YPSILANTIin automte parts! NG r" 2606 Washtenaw Avenue (11 Mi. E. of US 23)......................572-9177 TAYLOR 14250 S. Telegraph Rd. (1 Bik. N. of Eureka Rd.)....................946-8470 Individually Owned & Operated IN AND OUT IN 30 MINUTES IN MOST CASES OPEN DAILY AND SAT.8-6 PM Copyright 0 1985 Meineke Michigan Alumni work here: The Wall Street Journal The New York Times The Washington Post The Detroit Free Press The Detroit News NBC Sports Associated Press United Press International Scientific American Time The University of Michigan has a national reputation for excellence. THE COLUMBIA SCHOLASTIC PRESS ASSOCIATION awards this FIRST PLACE CERTIFICATE 1 to Caroline Mullecr and Eric Mat tson for News. Writ iii Given at Columbia University in the City-of New York, in its Gold Circle Awards for 1985. For the article titled, iti-Nazi Ral lv"