Revenge of the Nerds is a 1984 sex comedy directed by Jeff Kanew.

This film is about, in

four words, college kids going wild. From making out to binge drinking, this movie never once
hints at the education aspect of college.
The opening scene involves one of the main nerds in the film, Gilbert (played by Anthony
Edwards), whos nervous about leaving home for the first time. This is a challenging time that
many first-year college students face. Like Gilbert, his partner in crime, Lewis (played by Robert
Carradine), is also nervous, but his worries quickly fade as soon as he arrives at Adams
University, telling Gilbert he already feels more mature.
As Revenge of the Nerds does focus on normal issues about leaving for college, the film
writers, Tim Metcalfe, Steve Zacharias, Jeff Buhai, and Miguel Tejada-Flores, have created a
film mainly focusing on the stereotypical aspects of college. The main conflict present
throughout the film is the rivalry popular to numerous movies: nerd vs jocks. In the first ten
minutes of the movie, a jock is hanging a nerd by his ankles, dangling him from the balcony of
the Alpha Beta fraternity house while other jocks chant nerds as Gilbert and Lewis look for
their dorm.
While watching this film, I instantly realized the plot of the film was going to rely on this
conflict as well as the stereotypical characteristics of both parties. The jocks were portrayed as
large, muscular, athletic men with brains the size of peanuts while the nerds were represented as
young, lanky boys that may or may not have hit puberty yet. This was a constant reminder
throughout the movie, and after a while it got a little old to me.
There is not a lot of depth to this movie which wont be much of a surprise to the
audience based off the title, Revenge of the Nerds. Also, if anyone has any sort of experience
with nerd vs jock movies, very little of them seem to have a seriousness in those films. In some
ways, this film reminded me of a corny Adam Sandler movie where the first few dirty lines are
funny, but the jokes eventually get old. The movie is ultimately based on immature pranks
between the Alphas Betas, the jock fraternity, and the Tri-Lambs, the nerd fraternity. While some
aspects of this movie may have been funny to audiences in the 1980s, I am not convinced the
present-day audience will enjoy it to the same extent. An audience who may be searching for a
mindless, immature, somewhat funny college movie may find this appealing. Yes, there are some
slightly funny parts where the nerds pull pranks, such as sneakily putting liquid heat in the jocks
football jock straps. However, this movie shows the shallow aspects that come along with being
in a fraternity or sorority as well as being a nerd or jock that are not necessarily accurate.
When it comes to the fraternity/sorority aspect of college, this movie represents it solely
based off the aspect of partying and hooking up. In the first ten minutes of the movie, there is an
Alpha Beta frat party where the dumb jocks do everything from binge drinking to spitting out
alcohol and lighting it on fire, creating fireballs. This, in conclusion, results in the Alpha Beta
house burning down, the jocks roasting marshmallows on the flames of their burned down house.
To place the icing on the cake, one of the biggest jocks is nicknamed Ogre (played by Donald
Gibb) because his main role in the movie is to solely run around screaming like a deranged
animal.
On the other end of the spectrum are the nerds and their fraternity, Tri-Lambda. The nerds
in this movie are the usual nerds one would think of in such a movie; they have their wide lensed
glasses, plaid button up shirts, and little to no experience when it comes to girls. This can be
found quite comical when Gilbert and Lewis have their first run-in with a few sorority girls not
really knowing how to act. There is also a younger nerd- possibly ten at the oldest thirteen years
of age- who is going to college early.
 In Revenge of the Nerds, there is plenty of binge drinking, sex talk, making out, nudity,
and foul language, making the movie rated R. With the rating comes racy scenes that parents
should be aware of. For starters, the first scene parents should be aware of is when the nerds of
Tri-Lambda decide to raid the Delta Pi sorority house and set up cameras in their rooms and
bathrooms. Then when they get back to their fraternity house, they can watch the girls walk
around naked and get ready in the morning. Another scene to be cautious about around younger
kids is the carnival scene. The first part of the scene to be concerned about is the sex scene
between Betty and Gilbert. The second part of the carnival scene to be cautious about is when the
Tri-Lambda make pies that are simply whipped cream covering a picture of a naked girl,
college boys being shown licking the whipped cream off the plates. I strongly discourage people
younger than eighteen from seeing this movie.
As any clich movie comes to an end, Revenge of the Nerds concludes with a carnival
where it is, no surprise, nerd vs jocks. Of course, after all the competitions between the two
parties, the nerds win. While I do find this movie as another unoriginal film, I do see an
underlying message that can be important to those in college. The nerds winning the competition
symbolizes that brains overtrump power and popularity as well as showing the unfair treatment
of people considered outsiders, and in the end, emphasizes the acceptance of those outsiders.
Because of that somewhat deep message, I would rate this movie three out of five stars.

Revenge of the nerds. Dir. Jefferey Kanew. Perf. Robert Carradine, Anthony Edwards, and Julia
Montgomery. 20th Century Fox, 1984.