Revenge of the Nerds/Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise [Fox Double Feature] – DVD

REVENGE OF THE NERDS (1984)
***½/**** Image A- Sound B+
starring Robert Carradine, Anthony Edwards, Ted McGinley, Bernie Casey
screenplay by Steve Zacharias & Jeff Buhai
directed by Jeff Kanew

REVENGE OF THE NERDS II: NERDS IN PARADISE (1987)
½*/**** Image A- Sound B+
starring Robert Carradine, Curtis Armstrong, Bradley Whitford, Courtney Thorne-Smith
screenplay by Dan Guntzelman & Steve Marshall
directed by Joe Roth

by Bill Chambers One's great, the other ain't, and that's the truth, Ruth. Revenge of the Nerds, too often lumped in with the T&A comedies that flanked its theatrical release (Up the Creek, Porky's Revenge, et al.), is a cinematic gem of exemplary construction–one of the best, most empathetic teen movies with which John Hughes was not affiliated. Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise, alas, sequelizes the trashy rep of its predecessor rather than the reality.

Revenge of the Nerds opens with Gilbert Lowe (Anthony Edwards) and Lewis Skolnick (Robert Carradine) heading off to Adams College for the first time. Conversation on the drive down with Mr. Skolnick (James "Jamie" Cromwell, a decade before an Oscar nomination altered his career trajectory; every role in Revenge of the Nerds on down to Alice Hirson's sympathetic bit part as Gilbert's mother is a casting triumph) consists of much anticipatory sex talk, but right up there with the prospect of getting laid for the two freshmen is the lure of "the best computer department in the country."

Enter the Alpha Betas, a fraternity of hard-partying football players agitated by the mere sight of Gilbert and Lewis hauling monstrous luggage across campus grounds. "Nerds! Nerds! Nerds!" they chant; Lewis optimistically looks around for people who might fit that description. It's not until the Alpha Beta place goes up in smoke (thanks to "faulty wiring," i.e., a drinking game involving a cigarette lighter and moonshine) that destinies truly collide, however: the jocks take over the freshman dorm, sticking its former occupants with gymnasium lodging but also exempting them from the stipulation that first-year students can't join a chapter.

Lewis and Gilbert band together with such outcasts as child genius Wormser (Andrew Cassese) and a chronic nose-picker named, what else, Booger (Curtis Armstrong), fix up–in one of the genre's first and so far unmatched synth-pop restoration montages–a dilapidated house, and apply for membership to the African-American fraternity Lambda Lambda Lambda. Amazingly, or not, they're accepted, because they've got the guts to stand up to the Alpha Betas and the brains to do it right, if not wholly ethically (the Tri-Lambs rig those games against the Alpha Betas that demand prowess). Because they're an oppressed class in a culture that values brawn over brains. Because, as brethren, they couldn't be tighter.

Potentially offensive lynch-mob parallels (after our heroes become Tri-Lambs, and thus part of a black tradition, they find a burning "Nerds" sign on their lawn), combined with Revenge of the Nerds' resolve to define its supporting characters by their most easily stereotyped traits (an Oriental gooonnnnggg on the soundtrack, for instance, commemorates almost every appearance of foreign exchange-student Takashi (Brian Tochi)), contribute Lenny Bruce-ian irony to the proceedings. So desensitized do we become to everything that differentiates the Tri-Lambs from the status quo that it's the Alpha Betas, not the filmmakers, who look like the xenophobes, making them that much more effective as villains.

None of the above jeopardizes the film's sweet hilarity. In fact, the racial (specifically, black) subtext loads some of its best gags, including a variation on sexual folklore in which we learn that Tri-Lambs are better lovers than Alpha Betas. (How we learn that is admittedly dubious. I'm probably inclined to give the movie a pass because it knows exactly what it's doing, unlike a lot of merely irresponsible '80s entertainment.) By the time Revenge of the Nerds reaches its climax, societal discord has taken on Homeric proportions. Against all odds, the nerds have defeated Alpha Beta's mythological-sounding Ogre (Donald Gibb) and won control of The Greek Council. Gilbert and Lewis deliver a beautiful victory speech about "nerd persecution" at Adams' Homecoming that feels like the end of an odyssey, with nary a tongue in its cheek in sight.

Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise stirs sleeping dogs without Gilbert (save for an extended cameo) and, perhaps more crucially, without funny scenes. Tooled for the PG-13 rating, it's also more up-front about its vulgarity than the R-rated original, whose full-frontal nudity seems innocuous in comparison to the brown-stained "Who Farted?" shirt Booger coarsely displays throughout the sequel–one presumes so that we never notice how far the picture can't go. I smelled a rat when I first saw it, at the age of 12. I regretted dragging my father to see it.

Here, the Tri-Lambs arrive at a fraternity convention in Ft. Lauderdale only to find their rooms cancelled by the hotel manager because he hates nerds. Uh-huh. (The prejudice that exists on campus looks merely deranged in the real world.) Of course a new batch of Alpha Betas–er, plus Ogre–shows up, and they do everything but try to literally kill our nerd heroes. Although clever enough to have the nerds exiled to a patch of swampland, these sportos don't know how to spell "cat." Uh-huh. The final nail in the coffin of the film's credibility, though, is how Lewis and co. prevail this time around: with a tank and a left hook. In other words, brawn. Unbelievable. What did Fox know that I don't? Shortly after the ill-conceived, choppy Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise hit screens, they made its director, Joe Roth, head of the studio.

THE DVD
A few notes about the films' "Fox Double Feature" DVD release. A false edit to Revenge of the Nerds is rankling collectors: For legal reasons, shots featuring a "House for Rent" sign during Lewis's search had to be shortened on disc (it would appear they included a phone number that's still in service), and the cuts are admittedly jarring. Meanwhile, Nerds in Paradise is still missing the name "Esther Williams" from a description of an "Olympic-size swimming pool," but the unexpurgated line hasn't been heard since the film's theatrical release. Finally, Nerds II's running time is erroneously listed on the box art as 89 minutes instead of 98. If any movie should be 89 minutes, though, it's Revenge of the Nerds II.

Unfairly conjoined via opposite sides of a single-layer disc, the 1.85:1 anamorphic presentations of both Nerds are exceptional besides, with the slightly newer Paradise vaunting a cleaner image and bigger Dolby Surround audio. (Revenge of the Nerds was not in Dolby to start with, and in addition to a new remix its trebly mono soundtrack is a listening option.) Trailers for the following films are the "Fox Double Feature" disc's sole extras: Revenge of the Nerds; Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise; Porky's; and Porky's II: The Next Day.

89/98 minutes; R/PG-13; 1.85:1 (16×9-enhanced); English DD 2.0 (Mono), English Dolby Surround, French DD 2.0 (Mono)/English Dolby Surround, French DD 2.0 (Mono); CC; English subtitles; DVD-10; Region One; Fox