141: The Sure Thing / Better Off Dead (1985)

Kerry and Collin didn't plan on 2025 being a John Cusack-a-thon, but that's what ended up happening. After talking about "Serendipity" back in February and with "The Ice Harvest" coming up in December, the hosts decided to do a Cusack double-header of Christmas-adjacent films that came out 40 years ago. "The Sure Thing" was Cusack's first starring role in the teenage take on "It Happened One Night" while "Better Off Dead" took on a much weirder tone and ended up being a cult favorite, much to Cusack's chagrin. How does our sense of humor change as we get older? Which of the two films do the hosts respond to more? What is the third film co-starring John Cusack from this same year? Tune in to find out (or just IMDb him for that third question. Or look at the show notes below?). Plus, Kerry gives three more films from "1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die," one of which might tie into one of these Cusack films. Book films covered: "It Happened One Night" (1936) "Ran" (1985) "The Sting" (1973)

You can listen to 141: The Sure Thing / Better Off Dead (1985) online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

141: The Sure Thing / Better Off Dead (1985) is an episode from Christmas Movies Actually by Collin Souter.

This episode is 01:26:57 long.

This episode was published on Aug 20, 2025.

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