Revenge Of The Nerds 2: Nerds In Paradise
In my humble opinion there is almost nothing more shameful than taking one of the Grand Masterpieces of Raunchy 80s Comedies and producing a sequel that winds up being rated PG-13. You’re basically neutering, cutting the balls off what made the original great, and coming up with kiddie-aimed drivel. That being said, most of the good from this project comes from the likable returning ensemble cast. Carradine as Skolnick continues to be one of the legendary comedy characters, even if the “Lewis loses his temper” angle is sloppily done, Busfield’s Poindexter actually manages to better define his role this time around, bringing new nuances to what was arguably the blandest of the nerds in the original, and Curtis Armstrong as Booger is still the man, even if most of his lines here are appropriate for the ears of a 12 year old. However Cassese’s Wormser, now grown up and no longer unique, fades into the woodwork, and as for Larry B. Scott’s Lamar, I wouldn’t have even realized he was gay if not for a couple of subtle inferences. Also, Anthony Edwards comes by for an extended cameo, but has nothing particularly interesting to say or do. In fact, the entire script is filled with horrendously dumbed-down dialogue, resulting in several of the actors (particularly Donald Gibb’s Ogre), making complete buffoons of themselves. As for the newcomers, Bradley Whitford lacks any of the smooth coolness of Ted McGinley’s Stan Gable, and comes off mostly as a smarmy little punk, Courtney Thorne-Smith sure has pretty eyes, legendary Asian character actor James Hong scores big points as Booger’s Jedi master in slobbery, Ed Lauter gets a couple of funny moments as the hotel manager, and then there is the character of Stewart: ostensibly the “new” nerd that joins the bunch, the performance is essentially an offensive stereotype, and gets worse when he “raps” alongside Lamar with all the skill of Vanilla Ice during the nerd’s obligatory music number. Fortunately, in the end, this is all about one thing: a longtime enemy of the nerds turns away from the dark side and joins their ranks, and somehow the previous 85 minutes seems worthwhile. All in all, watchable, but a shame the filmmakers pussed out on making another raunch classic…
7/10