Release Date: March 06, 2007 Film Rating:   / Starring: Robert Carradine (Louis Skolnick, Tri-Lam), Anthony Edwards (Gilbert Lowell, Tri-Lam), Julia Montgomery (Betty Childs, Pi-Delta-Pi), Ted McGinley (Stan Gable, Alpha Beta) Story by: Tim Metcalfe Directed by: Jeff Kanew They’ve been laughed at, picked on and put down. But now it’s the time for the odd to get even! Their time has come! Nerds! Grab your glasses (if you can find them), stand straight (if you can), and march out that door! (if you don’t trip first) Your time has come to take revenge against the jocks that’ve picked on you and harassed you while teachers have turned a blind eye (and even laughed at your expense). What you do is up to you (as long as you don’t get beat up doing it), but for the nerds at Adams College, they’ll do anything to even the score. Revenge of the Nerds is the classic teenage comedy from the ‘80s. Watching it is a guilty pleasure for some (you must have been a nerd) as the nerd filled fraternity Lamda Lamda Lamba gets even with the jocks in Alpha Beta while battling for the hearts (and titty shots) of sorority girls in the skanky Pi Delta Pi and oversized ones in Omega Mu (I love the allusions). They characters are full of humour even though it’s not so hilarious; it’s just that we’ve all known people like Louis, Stan, Betty and Ogre in our high school or college years and that’s what makes this movie so likable. Fox has taken the time to provide us with a remaster of this film with new special features. It’s packaged in a keepcase covered by a cardboard slipcase.  VIDEO QUALITY: 3/5 I don’t have an older edition of this title to compare so I’ll tell you what I see. I will let you know that there are no noticeable compression artefacts. The encoding is very good for the material, and edge enhancement hasn’t been applied. The resulting image is slightly soft because of the original elements. I’m much more pleased to see a naturally softer image over an unnaturally sharpened one. Print artefacts are occasionally noticed and never a distraction. For the most part, it’s fairly clean. Colours take the look of the era; it’s somewhat desaturated despite the vibrancy of the gawd-aweful clothing of the time (yikes! I’m glad I wasn’t a part of that). Image contrast is surprisingly good. The daylight scenes provide more than adequate light and interior scenes never appear too dim. Black levels are a bit weak though, but I suspect most watching this film won’t be picky about these sorts of things just as long as it’s accurate to the source (but then, how would we ever know?) Details are nicely rendered on close-ups. Images in the background aren’t as articulate as some of the best DVDs, but again, this is source related and won’t be improved much until the jump to HD, and even then it’ll have similar characteristics. The aspect ratio is slightly under 1.85:1 and is enhanced for widescreen televisions. AUDIO QUALITY: 2.5/5 Go for the mono track, nerd! Even though the stereo version sounds almost identical (every sound is placed centrally and there are no discrete left-right effects, just a bit of artificial spaciousness), the mono soundtrack is a bit heavier sounding and I preferred it. The original mix isn’t all that great. Dialogue has been replaced with overdubs and it’s soooo noticeable it’s bad…ha hah… The ‘80s electronic soundtrack is so nerdy it’s good and decently recorded. TACTILE FUN!! ZERO / TACTILE TRANSDUCER ON/OFF?: OFF SPECIAL FEATURES: 2.5/5 New special features are included here. For your info (and this is a nice trend to see from Fox), all features are widescreen enhanced 1.78:1 so no resizing of the image is necessary on the consumer’s part). The first feature is an audio commentary from director Jeff Kanew who speaks with actors Robert Carradine, Timothy Busfield and Curtis Armstrong. The commentary is a bit boring to be honest. There’s a lack of excitement among participants and Kanew runs the show. On the flipside, there’s lots of good information said on the making of this film. This is further enhanced with the featurette. I’m a Nerd and Pretty Proud of It (38m35s) is a collection of interview clips from the above commentators plus Julia Montgomery and Ted McGinley (who almost shamefully says he played the person he was during that time in his life). This featurette is Revenge of the Nerds in the making in 35 minutes. It’s a nice piece at a good length. The six deleted scenes run at almost nine minutes and are nicely transferred from film and are in good shape. It’s not presented like those horrid video-based ones. These could almost be inserted back into the film if it weren’t for the undersaturated image and lack of completed audio (it’s mostly dialogue with little effects/music). Also of interest is the ”Revenge of the Nerds” TV Pilot Episode that never took off. It’s virtually summing the whole movie into a 24-minute sitcom. A laughed at one part, but I can see why it failed… What else does this set include? How about the theatrical trailer and a 4 page nerdy insert. IN THE END... I can’t recommend buying this set for the movie only unless sold for $10-$12 (the price of two rentals), although the added features make it worthwhile for fans to make the upgrade. Michael Osadciw March 10, 2007. |
- Michael Osadciw
- Michael Osadciw
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