Revenge of the Nerds: Review By moviegeek

***I know I'm writing a review of the remake technically, but this is actually a review of the 1984 original. MovieWeb has no film page for the original**

Nerds: what defines a nerd? Is it just the greased side-combed hair and pocket protectors? Is it the constant urge to rub their noses? Is it perhaps those dorky symmetrically taped glasses? Or those obnoxious guffaws they have that replace normal laughs?

The answer could include any of the above, but what I have described is not a nerd. It is a dork. There is one thing that sets a nerd aside from a dork, something this movie didn't seem to realize: intelligence!

Nerds are aggressively smart. They throw knowledge in your face. They are proud of their intellect more than anything else! In the first five minutes of 'Revenge of the Nerds' we see what this movie should have been. As two nerdy friends go off to college, they sit in the car and try to determine their ETA with their current speed and distance away. When they step out of the car, they stack their luggage evenly and balanced. They talk in big words and laugh at technical jokes.

But then, after five minutes of potential, they walk onto this campus and just become dorks. The movie follows these nerds and several freshmen dweebs who are kicked out of their dorm rooms and are in search of a new home. With no place to go, they decide to begin a fraternity of their own. This, of course, squares them off against the Alpha Beta jocks and their girlfriends.

The premise is likable and there is opportunity for some big laughs here. But it should have been smarter. Literally. By the end, the nerds have shifted into 'cool' people, and they then, paradoxically, ask for all nerds to unite and take a stand! Since they've abandoned the inner nerd in them, why not ask all of the outcasts to join together? That's basically what the movie is about. The unpopular and outcast.

Robert Carradine is quite funny as the main nerd. I liked his performance and it helped carry the movie (at least as high as it could go). The javelin-throwing scene also made me laugh quite hard. There are a few, very spacious, good laughs within.

Revenge of the Nerds isn't smart enough to have wit, it isn't dumb enough to laugh at itself, it just sits on the screen, flatly. It wasn't engaging. It was, at times, humorous. The movie is dull and bland with no real zest. And from the potential it had when it began, I was disappointed to see it waste it all further in. But it passes quickly enough, and it isn't really a bad movie.

Coming from a 'moviegeek', I can tell you what a 'nerd' is, and these 'dweebs' are not, so, in closing, Revenge of the 'Dorks' is not worth your time.