 Revenge of the Nerds, 1984This is one of those films I haven't seen cut up on television in a long, long time. The nude shots, Poindexter's premature ejaculation shot, the great dialog... it was such a pleasure to buy this 2 set DVD with both parts 1 and 2 of the Revenge of the Nerds franchise.Directed by Jeff Kanew (Gotcha!, Tough Guys, Troop Beverly Hills and V.I. Warshawski) and written by Jeff Buhai (Nerds III and IV and Eddie) and Miguel Flores (Fright Night II, and Screamers), this movie is smart, funny, well written and possibly one of the best comedies of the 1980's. This is one of those films where at least one person has to make it big from, and that person is Anthony Edwards. This was one of his first acting gigs, where he went on to do bigger and better things. Top Gun, Miracle Mile, Downtown (a great movie with Forest Whitaker), a stint on Northern Exposure, and his biggest deal, ER. Robert Carradine (who went on to star in the other 3 Nerds stories) has had a spotty but successful career in television and film, dating all the way back from 1972 (a walk-on in Mean Streets, Orca, The Tommyknockers, Carpenter's Body Bags, Firestorm, Escape from L.A. and a number of other films, mostly B-movies). He's also half-brother to David Carradine, and did some work on Kung-Fu, which I think is pretty cool! Timothy Busfield is another one who went places. From Stripes (his first feature, shooting the mortar, heh), to his long stint on thirtysomething, Field of Dreams, Sneakers, Quiz Show, First Kid and televisions The West Wing, it looks like a number of actors got their start with this very film. This was also one of John Goodman's launch pads. From here he went on to The Big Easy, Raising Arizona, Burglar, the hit TV show Roseanne, Always, Sea of Love, Barton Fink, Fallen, Blues Brothers 2000, The Big Lebowski, Bringing Out the Dead, O' Brother, Where Art Thou? and the soon to be released Monsters, Inc.. Two other actors to note, Curtis Armstrong (Booger) and Ted McGinley (Stan Gable), both made names for themselves in the 80's and 90's. Armstrong started with Tom Cruise in Risky Business, went on to the highly successful Moonlighting TV show. He then did a number of other films, including Better Off Dead, One Crazy Summer, the other 3 Nerds films, and a number of other B movie type gigs. McGinley we all know as Al Bundy's neighbor in Married with Children, following that up with other B movies. The cinematographer was King Baggot the Second. King Baggot the Second. I mean it. And this guy's been around for 15 years! The movie is just good entertainment, regardless of the spring-board mentallity attached to it. It was situated perfectly in a time of great comedies. It was original, well written, with great characters and great acting. It's also become a rather successful franchise. The last two films were made for TV, but, hey, Rambo only got up to 3. I'm leaving myself wide open for this "Yeah, but Stallone knew when to quit" comment, but I'll pass. It's one of the staple school movies, on par with such greats as Real Genius, The Breakfast Club and Heathers. I would suggest owning this hysterical film... but that's just me. For great info, sound bites, pictures, and streaming video of the movie, visit Todd's Fat Pants!. It's worth going just for Booger's scene with the guy through the mail slot, my favorite scene in the whole movie. J.P.
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