Remember That Movie: Revenge of the Nerds
In case you don’t remember, Revenge of the Nerds is about the clash between a fraternity of jocks and a dorm house of freshmen nerds. When the frat boys accidentally burn down their own house, their coach and the college dean allow them to displace any freshmen of their choosing from their dorm. The dean sets the displaced newbies up in the gym, emergency shelter style. Meanwhile, a group of these wronged dweebs decide to create their own fraternity. But, like a little kid swinging his arms while someone bigger is holding his head, they are faced with constant opposition and ridicule from the jocks, which seem to be in control of the Greek Council.
The film stars Robert Carradine, Anthony Edwards, Timothy Busfield, Curtis Armstrong, Ted McGinley, John Goodman, and James Cromwell. It was directed by Jeff Kanew (V.I. Warshawski) with a screenplay by Jeff Buhai (Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation), Miguel Tejada-Flores (Fright Night Part 2), and Steve Zacharias (Eddie).
Curtis Armstrong earns most of the film’s biggest laughs as Dudley ‘Booger’ Dawson, the crass member of the nerds, for such exchanges as when Gilbert, played by Anthony Edwards, tells his friends about his new girlfriend. Booger responds, “Big deal, did you get in her pants?” Gilbert scoffs, “She’s not that kind of girl, Booger.” To which, Booger replies, “Why? Does she have a penis?” He practically steals each scene he’s in, no matter if he’s taking advantage of Takashi, the token Asian nerd, during card games or winning an arm wrestling match by picking his nose.
Unfortunately, there are very few laughs outside of Booger’s scenes as much of the humor is weak or falls flat. Also, the movie struggles between treating its characters as cartoon stereotypes and people you care about. The nerds consist of the computer geeks, the crass slob, the Asian, the music geek, the 12 year-old intellectual phenom, and the flamboyantly gay guy. The jocks are arrogant, agro-Neanderthals and the sorority girls are superficial bimbos. These days, if those characters were featured in a Judd Apatow or a Todd Phillips comedy they’d have some dimension to them. Here, they have little more to them than what’s on the surface.
The jocks’ antics are really kind of lame by today’s standards. Their biggest act of humiliation is to release a bunch of pigs into a party hosted by the nerds and then moon the nerds when they came out. Instead of humiliating and painful, it feels quaint and silly.
The most interesting things about Revenge of the Nerds are how much it seems to influence future R-rated sex comedies and how dated the film’s perspective is.
For example, there is a scene in the movie wherein the nerds gather around to watch the sorority girls undress and sleep half-naked thanks to cameras they secretly installed during the film’s famous panty raid scene. The scene sounds very creepy, but plays like harmless sex comedy tomfoolery. However, it dawned on me a similar concept was carried out in American Pie fifteen years later. Guy secretly installs camera so he and his socially-awkward horndog buddies can watch elsewhere as girl undresses. That film simply took the concept to another level of interactivity (and backfires in humiliation).
What is striking about the film is how archaic the character’s attitudes are, particularly those of the jocks. Stan, the lead jock played by Ted McGinley, at one point declares, “Those nerds are a threat to our way of life.” In a way, he was right. His perspective that “the beautiful people shall rule the earth with the meek and nerdy under thumb” has definitely become a thing of the past, or at most, stays within the halls of high school. Outcasts are less easily identifiable and subtler than the stereotypes depicted in this film. No longer can you just look for the guy with the pocket protector and taped-up black-rim glasses. So, Stan is correct in the sense that that perspective did shift over time.
What’s more on point is those nerds eventually improve and change everybody’s way of life. The nerds Stan goes to college with are the ones who, figuratively speaking, would go on to work for Pixar, Microsoft, Verizon Wireless, Comcast, Google, Facebook, and every other technology or communications developer that has created everything from wireless routers to computer animated movies. Our society is ruled (or heightened) more by the work of the nerd than the work of the jock. As a matter of fact, nerds are even responsible for improving communications on the field between a quarterback and his coach and those graphics audiences at home see during the football games. In that sense, Stan did lose the war against the nerds.
We know how things turn out because we’re living it. Therefore, one can feel disconnected from Revenge of the Nerds while watching it because it is locked within its time. This prevents the film from holding up.
By the way, has there ever been a sex comedy that has endured over time as a great film? Porky’s hasn’t. Revenge of the Nerds hasn’t. American Pie hasn’t. But that’s a subject to explore another time.
Revenge of the Nerds went on to create one theatrical sequel (Nerds in Paradise) and two TV-movie sequels (The Next Generation and Nerds in Love). All but Revenge of the Nerds II were written by the original screenwriters. Buhai and Zacharias both went on to work on the script to the Whoopi Goldberg basketball comedy Eddie, while Tejada-Flores wrote scripts for such B-movies as Screamers and Rottweiler. Jeff Kanew, the director of the original Revenge of the Nerds, was struggling when the script for Nerds crossed his path. Afterwards, he wheezed out Troop Beverly Hills and V.I. Warshawski. His career stalled after that.
As for the cast, let’s begin with the nerds. Robert Carradine (Lewis) starred in the rest of the Nerds sequels and then moved on to TV movies and TV shows, most notably Lizzie McGuire. Anthony Edwards (Gilbert) only appeared in the first Nerds sequel, taking roles in more notable films such as The Sure Thing, Top Gun, Playing by Heart, and Zodiac. He also appeared in ten episodes of Northern Exposure, but may be best-known for his four years as Dr. Greene in the NBC series ER. Edwards is one of the few castmembers to not appear in the entire Nerds film series. Timothy Busfield (Poindexter) also only appeared in the first Nerds sequel and went on to a successful career in several TV shows, including Trapper John, MD; thirtysomething; The West Wing; and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. He also worked with Robert Redford in the films Sneakers and Quiz Show. Curtis Armstrong (Booger) has been very busy with over 100 roles in such films as The Sure Thing and One Crazy Summer with John Cusack, Van Wilder, and Ray. Armstrong’s career has mostly featured TV roles, most notably in Moonlighting, The Emperor’s New School, American Dad!, and Eek! The Cat. Larry B. Scott (Lamar) has had less on his plate since starring in the rest of the Nerds film series. He starred such ‘80s movies as The Karate Kid, SpaceCamp, and Iron Eagle, but has mostly taken bit parts in TV shows. His most significant TV credit is in an early-‘90s TV series titled Super Force, which ran for two seasons. Brian Tochi (Takashi) has mostly stuck to bit TV parts and voice work. However, he did star in Police Academy 3 and 4 as Elvis Nogata. His most notable voice work was in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film trilogy as Leonardo’s voice and as Liu Kang in the short-lived TV series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm. James Cromwell (or ‘Jamie’ as he’s credited in Revenge of the Nerds) may have also appeared in the entire Nerds film series, but he’s had an incredible film career since the ‘80s with such films as Babe, Star Trek: First Contact, and L.A. Confidential.
As for the jocks of Revenge of the Nerds, Ted McGinley (Stan) has starred in several TV shows, including Happy Days, The Love Boat, and Hope & Faith, but he may be best known for his role as Jefferson D’Arcy in Married…with Children. Donald Gibb (Ogre) appeared in the rest of the Nerds film series except Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation. He has since appeared in many bit TV parts, but also had supporting roles in Bloodsport and Bloodsport 2. Julie Montgomery (Betty) took bit parts in TV shows before starring in the last two Nerds films. Her last acting credit was in 1994’s Milk Money. John Goodman (Coach Harris) may be the most famous castmember of Revenge of the Nerds. Surprisingly, the film was only his seventh project and first notable role. Goodman went on to be a successful film star while also starring in the TV show Roseanne for nine seasons.
Revenge of the Nerds was made on a budget of $8 million and went on to make $40.8 million at the box office, making it the tenth highest-grossing college comedy of all time (Animal House is #1 with $141.6 million). It made an additional $20 million in rental revenue. Bravo placed Revenge of the Nerds at #91 in their ‘100 Funniest Movies’ list (Animal House is also #1 on that list).
20th Century Fox tried remaking the film under their short-lived genre label Fox Atomic. Production began in 2006 for a 2007 release date. The film was to star Adam Brody and be directed by Kyle Newman (Fanboys). Recognizing how different things are since the original film, Newman’s intent was for the remake to be less of a direct translation of the original with jocks and nerds and more of a spiritual descendent. The project quickly became problematic with creative differences from studio executives who didn’t understand the humor and were unenthusiastic about creating a remake of a film they didn’t like but were mandated by 20th Century Fox to churn out in order to launch the Atomic label. Meanwhile, issues arose regarding the college locations used during production. Filming was cancelled after three weeks. It was intended to be Fox Atomic’s launching pad, but turned into its only cancelled project. Fox Atomic released such films as 28 Weeks Later, The Rocker, and Jennifer’s Body. The label was shut down in 2009.
This may be just as well since the film’s concept simply does not translate well these days. People still get picked on for being awkward or different, but the faces of both sides are less clear-cut and more complex than they were when Revenge of the Nerds was filmed. It is now an occasionally funny sex comedy about socially-awkward characters that is best viewed (if at all) as a stepping stone for films like American Pie, Old School, and Office Space. Revenge of the Nerds is an iconic comedy, but not a great one.
5/10
Should you see it? Skip
Revenge of the Nerds is available on the 'Panty Raid Edition' DVD and Netflix Watch Instantly.