Revenge of the Nerds

1984 "They've been laughed at, picked on and put down. But now it's time for the odd to get even!"
6.6| 1h30m| R| en
Details

At Adams College, the jocks rule the school from their house on high, the Alpha Beta fraternity. So when a group of socially-challenged misfits try to go Greek, they're instantly rejected by every house on campus. Deciding to start their own fraternity to protect their outcast brothers, the campus nerds soon find themselves in a battle royale as the Alpha Betas try to crush their new rivals.

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Reviews

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!
Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
Fulke Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
Sam Panico Best friends and nerds Lewis Skolnick (Robert Carradine, son of "skinny Dracula" John Carradine and brother of David Carradine) and Gilbert Lowe (Anthony Edwards) are excited to attend Adams College, but are instantly kicked out of their dorm by the Alpha Betas, who have burned their house down. Sleeping on cots in the gym, they find other like-minded misfits and decide to create their own fraternity.The film follows the 80's comedy blueprint: a simple premise is stated, then hijinks ensue. Here, it is: "Nerds go to school and fight jocks, then hijinks ensue."Battling Alpha Betas Stan (Ted McGinley, he who has caused many a TV show to "Jump the Shark"), Burke (Matt Salinger, son of J.D. and star of 1990's Captain America) and Ogre (Donald Gibb, Ray Jackson from Bloodsport), our Nerds overcome adversity and become a probationary Tri-Lamb fraternity. Ironically, Lambda Lambda Lambda has always been an all-black frat. And the boys only have one black member, the stereotypically gay Lamar.That means that Tri-Lamb president U.N. Jefferson (Bernie Casey from Gargoyles!) has to come visit the boys. They throw a party that is boring until Booger's (Curtis Armstrong) drugs get involved — welcome to the 80's — and everyone loses their inhibitions. However, the jocks disrupt their party, leading to Jefferson coming around to the guys as he senses discrimination.The Nerds take their titular revenge by conducting a panty raid and putting liquid heat into the jock straps of the football team, leading to Jefferson making them a real frat. However, the harassment can never stop while Stan is the President of the Greek Council. So the Nerds need to win the Greek Games during homecoming so that they get a vote — which they do so via a combination of their intelligence, more drugs and some questionable decisions (more on those in a bit). Oh yeah — and there's also an 80's synth music number.The jocks trash the Nerds house, but Gilbert decides to speak up at a pep rally. The dean, U.N. Jefferson and a group of big black Tri-Lambs stand up for him and the Nerds ask all the disenfranchised in the audience to join them. The dean tells the jocks that they have to give up their house until the damage to the Tri-Lambs house is fixed, saying, "You're jocks, go live in the gym." Everyone celebrates. The end.Except, well, there are some troubling moments.What bonds the Nerds and brings them together? A panty raid, as the boys descend on the Pi Delta Pi sorority house, stealing panties, chasing women and placing video cameras, through which the boys watch the women while they go about their daily lives. In the 80's, this was considered a prank. Today, we'd call it rape. But it gets worse. Much worse.In the Greek Games, a pie-selling contest determines much of the final score. The Nerds win by using nude photos of Betty (Julia Montgomery, The Kindred) under the crust of their pies. Again, this is abhorrent behavior. But it gets worse.There's also a kissing booth, where Lewis attempts to make his move on Betty. She is replaced with a large, unattractive woman, showing that even the Nerds place an emphasis on physical versus internal beauty, no matter what hardships that very same prejudice has put them through. Then, Lewis steals Stan's costume and tricks Betty into having sex with him. Yes, the hero of this movie knowingly ignores consent to have sex. This is pure and simple rape. This isn't a snowflake looking back on a fun remnant of our pop culture past. This scene has bothered me since I first watching this film on VHS. Even worse, Betty falls instantly in love with her rapist, asking him if all Nerds are this good in bed.I haven't even gotten into the racism of the film, which posits all Japanese as horny photograph taking morons through the Takashi character. That said, Brian Tochi, the actor who played Takashi, is credited "for breaking the barriers and opening doors for East Asian people in entertainment in the U.S., and advancing the perception that Oriental actors have the ability to portray more mainstream roles." Those mainstream roles also include Cadet Tomoko "Elvis" Nogata in the Police Academy films, who acts just as ridiculous as Takashi (but doesn't have his own corny Asian theme song). Or just how stereotypically gay Lamar is.But to me, the worst sin of the film is that when the Nerds win, instead of treating their opponents with the care that they never received and teaching everyone an important lesson, they instead relegate the jocks back to the fate they had once suffered. No one learns anything. The cycle repeats and now the jocks become the Nerds who have become the jocks. This reminds me of how insular societies — wrestling fans, comic book lovers — can be more hate-filled and clique obsessed than their worst perceived enemies.Read more at http://bit.ly/2A4SBqO
John Brooks 'Revenge of the Nerds', 1984. Okay, so you don't need a descriptive review or opinion here, you know exactly what this is going to be. A couple of nerd protagonists in a new college, the jock group, the chicks, racial stereotypes, Weird Al Yankovic and an 80's then-modern computerized soundtrack... you get it already.But is it any good ? Yeah. It's funny. From the most annoying donkey-like geek laughs, to the deadpan presence of Bernie Casey in some of the most ridiculous scenes of the film, the stupid weird dancing and uptight nerds going wild, the gay black kid character at a time when one could just laugh at funny things without moral taboos... the movie-makers really did some work for this one and it isn't the gratuitous unsubtle incarnation of the project you may imagine.Whether it's a cult classic changes nothing for you if you're a new viewer, but there's more to this film than just the narratives. Oh and a nice, and believable moral at the end.Discover it if you're tempted to in the first place, it's pretty fun.
Prismark10 A follow up to a scene from Animal House where everyone who was not a white, good looking jock were not deemed to be the right sort to join the frat house.Louis and Gilbert are high school friends who are heading for college but are soon branded nerds and hence outsiders. When the football jocks burn their own building down the nerds are kicked out from their own dormitory and and forced to live in the gymnasium.After constant bullying and humiliation from the jocks they form their own fraternity and ally themselves with an accredited, mainly black college who accepts them and are able to renovate a rundown campus houseThis means they can take their grievance to the their own college council but are again stonewalled by the jocks who run it and then challenge them at the Greek Games where the nerds use their cunning and brain power to get one up on the jocks.Like a lot of 1980s comedies of this type, it has bimbos, tits and arse, 80s music, stereotypes but its heart is in the right place as the geeks fight back against the bullies.It is not a great film but a fun, silly film with a lot of actors who went on to become familiar faces such as James Cromwell, John Goodman and Anthony Green.
KoalaPig Before anybody gets offended by the above summary, I just want to say that I like many things about America and its culture, conversely there are things I dislike. A lot of the latter were highlighted in the film "Revenge of the Nerds". Also, just to avoid the wrath of the blindly patriotic, I am by no means saying that other countries and cultures don't have their share of downfalls too.So, to back to the film… Due to its age, (30 years), one can possibly, (yet begrudgingly), forgive some of the casual racism and homophobia used to gain cheap laughs. However the film really hits rock bottom with its multiple scenes/sub-plots that show sexual abuse in an entirely positive light.There is a highly unlikely, yet possible, chance that the above could be overlooked if the film's humour compensated for the offensiveness, or if the rapey/homophobic/racist plot elements were done tongue in cheek – BUT THEY WEREN'T – in spite of what people might claim.Now-a-days I watch certain things, which I enjoy to various degrees, but make me yearn for my stoner days as I know my amusement would be amplified. ROTN does not even offer me this. I watched it as it is regarded as a "classic" and is referenced to in many other shows. In summation: I wish I hadn't bothered – 2/10.