Independent Films, Film Profiles

Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise

Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise is the 1987 sequel to the 1984 comedy Revenge of the Nerds. Its cast featured most of the main actors from the earlier film, including Robert Carradine, Anthony Edwards, Curtis Armstrong, Larry B. Scott, Timothy Busfield, Donald Gibb, and Andrew Cassese. This film also provided an early starring role for Courtney Thorne-Smith. Other cast members include Bradley Whitford, Ed Lauter, and Barry Sobel.One of the movie trailers parodies the trailer of Poltergeist II: The Other Side where they pan the inside of a house, then the phone rings, and the person sitting in the chair facing away from the camera picks up, then the person turns to reveal it's Heather O'Rourke's character, Carol-Ann, who says "They're Back." In the Nerds version, Lewis' character turns and says "We're Nerds!"The film opens with a Star Wars-like crawl (preceded by Skolnick's pocket protector) summarizing the Tri-Lambs exploits from the first film, culminating in their triumph against their rival fraternity, the Alpha Betas. Network and basic cable airings of the movie often edit out the last three words of the text crawl, which are "And get laid."In this follow-up to the original film, the nerdy fraternity boys from Lambda Lambda Lambda go to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, for a national fraternity conference, where they again must outwit the national chapter of the Alpha Beta fraternity who are also at the conference. They accomplish this goal with the help of "Ogre" (Gibb), their former nemesis, who joins forces with the nerds after literally being cast away by his Alpha Beta brothers. The nerds are forced into an uninhabited island so they'll be out of the area when the Alpha Betas use the conference to have the Tri-Lamb charter revoked, only to find that it was a base of operations for a Cuban military officer who had been exiled. Using the military gear, the nerds are able to return to Fort Lauderdale and confront the Alpha Betas. Ogre sides with the nerds against the Alpha Betas in a critical confrontation, and later becomes a member of Lambda Lambda Lambda.The most noticeable difference between this movie and the original is the reduction of the role of Lewis' shy and sensitive best friend, Gilbert (Edwards), from a main character to a brief cameo appearance, with the explanation that Gilbert had broken his leg (curiously, during a chess match), and was unable to attend the conference. Gilbert also makes some other sporadic appearances throughout the film, such as a vision during one of Lewis' dreams and at the end where Ogre is initiated into the nerds' fraternity. In time, the character of Dudley "Booger" Dawson replaces Gilbert as Lewis' best friend, as he is the only member of the group to have a major role in all four movies. Since Lewis is interested in another girl, Betty (Julia Montgomery) is not in this film, although her picture is seen on his desk before he leaves for Fort Lauderdale. However, she will be married to Lewis in the two future Revenge of the Nerds films.The "Nerd Rap" in Nerds II features Barry Sobel, who was known in the 1980s to imitate a Beastie Boys-type rap style. He and Lamar trade rhymes at the "no on 15" party.