Revenge of the Nerds (1984)

Revenge of the Nerds (1984)

4/10

Starring

Robert Carradine

Anthony Edwards

Ted McGinley

Bernie Casey

Directed by Jeff Kanew

Revenge of the Nerds is a movie I expected to enjoy, but I ended up not. The movie is meant to be a comedy, but it lacked comedy itself. The writers and the person responsible for the musical score took everything literally. There was nothing in this movie that jumps out at you, everything just played to its own stereotype, from the characters to their costumes. Nerds were not the only one in the movie that were on the revenge path, all the outcasts were all on the same team against the jocks. With all these brains together, the best they could do was become perverts and play pranks on their rivals.

The movie was meant to climax when both sides take on each other in a showdown, for me that was when the movie just went completely off the rails and failed to entertain.

The plot has two young men Lewis and Gilbert starting college. They have been able to scale through high school with their dignity and hopes intact after being bullied and being treated differently because they were nerds. This time they believe things will be different and they are happy to be in college because they believe finally all the bullying will end.

On their first day in college they get called the name they believe they have left behind, Nerds. Things got worse when the jocks take over their freshmen dorms and force all the freshmen to live in the gym.

Enough was enough and the freshmen along with other outcasts led by the two nerds Lewis and Gilbert decided to dish out revenge. They also plan to strip power from the jocks and bring balance to the school.

The story lacked the needed cohesion to merge all the tiny subplots to make the movie very interesting. At times it was easy to guess which path the movie will eventually take and sometimes you wished the movie had more going for it than the idea of the nerds finally standing up for themselves.

I liked the idea of the nerds (the outcast) being able to stand-up for themselves and take on the jocks. I also liked the way the nerds were not made to be like complete losers who can not think of anything else other than books. These two things were the only change given to the characters, everything else is stereotypical.

The movie was a huge financial success, I guess many people liked the idea of the underdog getting one over the regulars.