Blu-ray Review - Revenge of the Nerds

Revenge of the Nerds
Director: Jeff Kanew
Starring: Timothy Busfield, Robert Carradine, Curtis Armstrong, Andrew Cassese, Anthony Edwards
Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Release Date: May 6, 2014
Retail: $14.99
ASIN: B00IXD2MMU
Running Time: 90 minutes
Rating:  R

Review:

To celebrate its 30th anniversary, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is releasing the 1984 box-office smash comedy Revenge of the Nerds on Blu-ray for the first time on Tuesday, May 6, 2014.

Special Features include I'm a Nerd, and I'm Pretty Proud Of It; deleted scenes; Revenge of the Nerds TV Pilot; commentary by Director Jeff Kanew and actors Robert Carradine, Timothy Busfield and Curtis Armstrong; and the original theatrical trailer.

Before there was the American Pie teen comedy and its countless sequels, there were many teen/college rated R comedies being released in the 1980s, including the 1984 Revenge of the Nerds starring Robert Carradine as  Lewis Skolnick and Anthony Edwards as Gilbert Lowe, best-friends, nerds, who have just arrived at Adams College. The start of the freshman year hits a snag when the fraternity, The Alpha Betas, take over their dorm and tosses them, along with a few other freshman,o out.

The Alpha Betas' frat house had burned to the ground, which is reason why they took over the dorm, leading the college no other choice, but to allow fraternities to take in the freshman, but Lewis and Gilbert have a slight problem - no fraternity will accept nerds.

Along with a few other nerds, Poindexter (played by Timothy Busfield), Wormser ( played by Andrew Cassese), Booger (played by Curtis Armstrong), Takashi Toshiro (played by Brian Tochi) and Lamar Latrelle (played by Larry B. Scott), Lewis and Gilbert renovates an old house into a fraternity house. They attempt to join a national fraternity, but keep getting rejected, that is until they get a probationary membership in the fraternity, Lambda Lambda Lambda.

The Alpha Betas and the sorority, the Pi Delta Pi, keep harassing the nerds and they have no other choice, but to get revenge, in a nerdy way.

Its been many years since I last saw Revenge of the Nerds, which looks great transferred to Blu-ray, but I don't recall the movie being rated R. I watched the film countless times when I was a child at my grandparents' house on Sunday afternoons; and now that I think about it, I probably shouldn't have been watching it at that age, considering all the nudity and language that is in it; though it is a lot tamer compared to recent rated R comedies.

There are few neat features on the Blu-ray, including the failed Fox comedy pilot, which is basically a rehash of the first film. Yes, I said first film, as there was a 1987 theatrical sequel followed by two made-for-television movies on Fox in the early 90s, but none of them had the humor or charm that the original had. Overall, it is nice to see Revenge of the Nerds getting the Blu-ray treatment; though the characters are a little stereotyped, the film's humor still holds up well.

*Disclaimer - I received a complimentary copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.