Movie Review: Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise

Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise
Twentieth Century Fox, Interscope Communications, Amercent Films, American Entertainment Partners L.P., USA, 1987.

After gaining a victory for nerd-rights against Alpha-Beta jocks the Lambda-Lambda-Lambda nerds Lewis (Robert Carradine), Poindexter (Timothy Busfield), Lamar (Larry B. Scott), Booger (Curtis Armstrong) and Wormser (Andrew Cassese) travel to Fraternity Conference in Fort Lauderdale. Gilbert (Anthony Edwards) stays home as he broke his foot while playing chess. In sunny Florida bikini-girls are plentiful and that suits perfectly for the nerds.

Lamar, Lewis, Poindexter, Wormser and Booger

Sunny

Buzz and Roger

In the hotel they meet new friends: friendly hotel trainee Sunny (Courtney Thorne-Smith, known as Alison from  "Melrose Place") and pre-nerdcore era rapper Stewart (Barry Sobel) but also old enemies are there. Alpha-Betas are there with the bellowing jock Ogre (Donald Gibb) from the first movie, with his classic line: 'Nerds!' The hotel manager Buzz (Ed Lauter) does not want nerds in the hotel. Conspiring with jock-president Roger (Bradley Whitford) they evict the nerds. The nerds are forced to move to a sucky hotel, but the jocks are still not contended and try to kick them out of the conference. The nerds find themselves stranded on a deserted island and have to put their brains to use to get out. 

Ogre

Nerds With Attitude

Although the permise is not as original as in the prequel than the first, I somehow enjoyed this more. The second Nerd-adventure rolls smoother than the previous, having less paartying and more plot and slightly more clean jokes. The basic idea is the same, the nerds try to get accepted but the jocks play dirty. However there are plot holes that look like the script was rewritten on the fly. Stewart has little meaning to the plot and it seems that originally Sunny was supposed to have romance with him, but the story arc was abandoned and in the end Sunny is hugging Lewis. Betty (Julia Montgomery) is seen only as a portrait that Lewis packs in his suitcase. Lewis, you womanizer. However in the third Nerd-movie Lewis and Betty are happily married so everything is well again (I don't have the sequels). Much of the events are silly but it is a fun and genuinely a 1980s comedy.

Lewis, you dog.

Courtney Thorne-Smith is cute in her nice girl role. Regular Oriental old guy actor James Hong appears as Snotty, the Master of Gross. After the first film Ogre became somewhat a cult character and likewise Jaws in the "Moonraker", he is made more sympathetic here.

Snotty

Rating: Good

Starring: Robert Carradine, Curtis Armstrong, Larry B. Scott, Timothy Busfield, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Andrew Cassese, Donald Gibb, Bradley Whitford, Ed Lauter, Barry Sobel, Tom Hodges, Jack Gilpin, Anthony Edwards, James Hong, Priscilla Lopez, James Cromwell, Jason Julien, Marilyn Caskey, Richard Joseph Paul, Rhonda Waymire, Donna Rosea, Susan Vanech, Robert Goodman, Michael Fitzgerald, Huey Laborde, Raymond Forchion, Carmen Thomas, Miles Greadington, Victor Morris, Ed Knott Jr., Tom Boykin, Ruben Rabasa, Michael J. Carnevale, Noreen Compton, Janet Constable, Stephen Ray Cranford, Ellen Marguerite Cullivan, Ian Ng Cheng Hin, Scott Spinnuci, Kai Thorup, Todd Vittum
Director: Joe Roth