Why So Blu?

Revenge Of The Nerds (Blu-ray Review)

 Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!  Nerds!

Film 

Nerds! Nerds!…*catches breath*.  Okay, sorry.  Revenge Of The Nerds follows Step Brothers Lewis and Gilbert as they begin freshman year at Adams College.  When the jock fraternity Alpha Beta gets stupidly drunk (a nightly ritual) and burns their house down, they take over Lewis and Gilbert’s dorm, forcing them to take residence in the gymnasium.  After having enough of that, them and fellow outcasts get a house on campus and decide they want to start a fraternity of their own.  To the Alpha Betas this means war and practical jokes begin in a matter of brains versus brawn.  Will the jocks keep their reign on campus or will the nerds slowly impose their will on the greek council, the sororities and the rest of the campus?

Revenge Of The Nerds has always been a tops all time college/fraternity comedies for me.  I think I’ve even seen this one more than I have Animal House (sue me).  While it doesn’t devote much time to campus life or classes, it doesn’t matter because the movie is just out to have some fun and focus on crazy situations and characters.  And those characters you come to meet in this film are ones you won’t soon forget.  While Gilbert and Lewis are the focus, I feel like the other members of Tri-Lamb get plenty of face time.

This time around I was pretty taken with Booger and Poindexter.  Poindexter just seemed to have a lot of physically comedic gold moments throughout.  Booger, however, I found to be oozing with a unique sense of cool.  I think its mainly the guy’s “I don’t give a f***” type attitude, but it was really working for me.  I’m sure nobody has ever referred to the Curtis Armstrong character in that fashion, but I was getting a kick out it big time.

Another thing that I think needs mentioned is the super rad score by Thomas Newman.   Revenge Of The Nerds was one of his first composing gigs on feature films and I think he totally hit one out of the park.  Not only does the score perfectly fit the tone and spirit of the film, but the bands and soundtrack songs rock it out too.  I was getting down to some “Thriller”, “Burning Down The House” and others as I took this journey back to the college life of 1984.  And who could forget this musical moment in the film?

Revenge Of The Nerds is an essential college raunch comedy.  For the most part, all the of humor seems to hold up and I think even some of it has aged rather well over time.  Its also a good story about outcasts not cowing down and taking a beating, but immediately fighting back fairly and taking care of business in their own way.  There are many terrific comedic performances (I didn’t even mention John Goodman, who is quite hilarious in a side role) and gamut of funny sequences.  Also, the movie is oddly enough slightly progressive too.  I can’t speak much for its sequels after all these years, but the original is still terrific!

Video 

Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 1:85.1

Clarity/Detail:  For what it is and what’s been done, its a solid work.  Its not the sharpest, but this is easily the best Nerds has looked.  There’s good detail to be had, but a lot of it impresses the closer up the shot it.  But, this should easily meet and likely rise above your expectations for this movie going in.

Depth: Dimensions are solid for what we are given.  There’s a few exterior shots that display a nice 3 dimensionality, but overall its just decent.

Black Levels: Blacks are pretty dark and sometimes mask detail slightly.

Color Reproduction: Colors are rather solid, in particular the reds pop like crazy on this.

Flesh Tones: Skin tones are consistent.  Facial detail is high during close ups.

Noise/Artifacts:  There’s a minimal amount of normal dirt and specs and doesn’t look to be too tampered with digitally.

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English 1.0 DTS-HD MA, Spanish 1.0 Dolby Digital, French 1.0 Dolby Digital

Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish

Dynamics: This gets off to a rough start, and a lot of Carradine’s laughing peaks as well as some of the score.  Its solid and does the trick, but doesn’t overly impress.

Low Frequency Extension: N/A

Surround Sound Presentation: N/A

Dialogue Reproduction:  Dialogue is clean and clear.

Extras 

Commentary By Jeff Kanew, Robert Carradine, Timothy Busfield And Curtis Armstrong – This is more of sharing on-set memories and praising eachother than it is a “making of”, but still for this type of movie, this is what you want from the commentary.

I’m A Nerd And I’m Pretty Proud Of It (HD, 38:36) – A retrospective look at the making of the film and its legacy with cat and crew.

Deleted Scenes

• Stan Owes Nerd Money (HD, :48)
• Gilbert Tells Judy How He Feels (HD, 1:53)
• Tri-Lamb Vegas Convention (HD, 1:26)
• Chariot Race (HD, 1:56)
• Nerds Catch Jocks Destroying Their House (HD, :36)

Revenge Of The Nerds TV Pilot – This is about as terrible as any given episode of The Big Bang Theory is.  Wow, just awful.

Theatrical Trailer (HD, 1:25)

Summary 

20th Century Fox brings home Revenge Of The Nerds with good audio and video and a nice array of extras to make for a solid, definitive release.  It would’ve been nice if Anthony Edwards would come back and talk about the movie, but apparently he’s too cool for nerds now…backwards as that may be considering who he played in the film.  Anyway, that minor quibble aside, this is a terrific release and definitely recommended for just about anybody.