--- title: "Revenge of the Nerds" year: 1984 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/revenge-of-the-nerds" fi1m_id: "revenge-of-the-nerds" imdb_id: "tt0088000" tmdb_id: 14052 wikidata_id: "Q937395" fi1m_score: 38 critics_score: 41 critics_reviews: 4 published: "2026-10-04T18:50:38.051971+00:00" updated: "2026-10-04T18:50:38.560624+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Revenge of the Nerds (1984) Directed by Jeff Kanew · 1h 30m · MPA R · Comedy ## Identity Revenge of the Nerds - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/revenge-of-the-nerds - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** revenge-of-the-nerds - **IMDb ID:** tt0088000 - **TMDB ID:** 14052 - **Wikidata ID:** Q937395 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088000/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/14052, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q937395 **Fi1m score: 38** · Critics 41 (early) from 4 reviews *In a sentence:* Being bullied at college apparently comes with permission to be horrible to everyone else > Robert Carradine and Anthony Edwards bring warmth to a poor college comedy. Its underdogs deserve sympathy, but racial stereotypes and voyeuristic humour make supporting them more trouble than the laughs can justify. ## Synopsis At college, Lewis Skolnick (Robert Carradine) and Gilbert Lowell (Anthony Edwards) want to stop being the people everyone else laughs at. Their fellow outsiders include Arnold Poindexter (Timothy Busfield), ‘Booger’ Dawson (Curtis Armstrong) and Lamar Latrell (Larry B. Scott). Being picked on gives the group a shared grievance, while the people who mock them have little reason to surrender their position. The outsiders begin looking for a way to get even. Getting through college now means challenging the people who keep putting them down, rather than hoping to be accepted by them. ## Review Jeff Kanew’s *Revenge of the Nerds* is a poor college comedy built around an easy appeal: people who are mocked want to get even. We recognise the attraction, and a film need not turn its underdogs into saints to earn our affection. The screenplay by Jeff Buhai and Steve Zacharias keeps asking for that affection while serving up jokes that make the request increasingly difficult to grant. At 90 minutes, it moves briskly enough, but a short running time cannot help much when the same comic limitations keep coming round. Robert Carradine as Lewis Skolnick and Anthony Edwards as Gilbert Lowell give us the strongest reason to stay with it. They make the outcasts’ wish to be accepted easy to understand, and there is enough warmth in the performances to suggest a more agreeable comedy might have been possible. The humour works best when we can enjoy their company without being instructed to despise somebody else. That makes the failures more frustrating, because the actors have done enough to win some sympathy before the writing begins to squander it. The supporting characters suffer from being assigned a type and left with it. Broad characterisation has its uses in a comedy, but the racial stereotypes here are stale shortcuts, and the childish slapstick rarely gives the performers much to build on. Too many jokes depend on recognising somebody as a figure of fun before they have had a chance to do anything funny. For a film about the misery of being labelled and dismissed, there is remarkably little curiosity about the people beyond its central pair. We were repelled by the voyeuristic humour, because the film treats an invasion of privacy as a comic pleasure. There is no need to describe the episode to explain the problem: the joke asks us to enjoy someone else’s exposure. Bad taste is not automatically a failure in a college comedy, and outrage is hardly a useful test of whether something is funny. Here, though, the cruelty makes the appeal for sympathy harder to accept, and the film seems uninterested in that difficulty. The craft is competent enough to make the missed opportunities irritating. Alan Balsam’s editing helps Jeff Kanew keep the comedy brisk, while King Baggot’s cinematography and James L. Schoppe’s production design leave the performers room to carry it. Thomas Newman’s music fits the film’s eagerness to entertain, but it cannot make the nastier business feel as harmless as the film appears to think it is. Nobody needed to make this more solemn; giving the characters a little room between the gags would have been enough. The college comedy has plenty of room for vulgarity, selfishness and bad decisions, provided the jokes repay the time spent with them. Here the laughs arrive too irregularly to make the ugliness worth enduring, and the occasional pleasure of seeing outsiders push back cannot carry the whole film. Those interested in the genre may find enough in Robert Carradine and Anthony Edwards to tolerate the rest. For an evening’s comedy, we would choose something that makes spending time with its leads less of a chore. *Fi1m score 38, published 4 October 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is Revenge of the Nerds worth watching?** *Revenge of the Nerds* is a poor college comedy that we score 38/100, with too few laughs to justify its cruelty. Robert Carradine and Anthony Edwards bring warmth that may interest college-comedy enthusiasts, but racial stereotypes and voyeuristic humour make it difficult to support the underdogs. **How long is Revenge of the Nerds, and what is it rated?** *Revenge of the Nerds* runs 1h 30m and is rated R by the MPA in the US. It is a comedy film. **Where can I watch Revenge of the Nerds in the US?** *Revenge of the Nerds* is not on any streaming or rental service in the US at the moment. It is available in 1 other country; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is Revenge of the Nerds, and is it suitable for children?** *Revenge of the Nerds* carries a UK 18 certificate and is not suitable for children. The concern we highlight is its adult humour, particularly voyeuristic jokes that treat an invasion of privacy as entertainment, alongside racial stereotypes and childish slapstick; we would not recommend it for a family comedy evening. **How does Revenge of the Nerds compare to Booksmart?** *Revenge of the Nerds* is the weaker comedy beside [*Booksmart*](https://film.one/film/booksmart), which we recommend for its sharper jokes and more rounded friendships. Both concern students, but *Booksmart* finds warmth in high-school friends who overestimate their judgement, while *Revenge of the Nerds* squanders its college outsiders’ appeal on stereotypes and cruelty. **What should I watch after Revenge of the Nerds?** After *Revenge of the Nerds*, try [*Booksmart*](https://film.one/film/booksmart) (2019, Fi1m 81): Another unruly student comedy, with sharper jokes and more rounded friendships. Then [*Breaking Away*](https://film.one/film/breaking-away) (1979, Fi1m 86): For competitive underdogs whose frustrations matter as much as their ambitions. ### Reviews we read (4) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (70/100, inferred): The critic finds the simple-minded comedy entertaining enough to earn passing grades. They praise Kanew’s brisk pacing and convincing payoff, despite the film’s cardboard stereotypes and bad-taste humor. [Read](https://variety.com/1983/film/reviews/revenge-of-the-nerds-2-1200425993/) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Duane Byrge (45/100, inferred): Byrge finds the comedy often funny and its outcasts’ comeuppance satisfying, but says tasteless episodes and racial stereotypes mar it. He praises the performances of Robert Carradine and Anthony Edwards, and singles out a voyeuristic scene as particularly odious. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/revenge-nerds-review-1984-movie-1022865/) - **Time Out**, DPe (30/100, inferred): The available description takes a critical view of the college comedy’s genre and stereotypes. It singles out the film’s stock character types as nauseating, though the full review is unavailable. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/revenge-of-the-nerds) - **Radio Times**, John Ferguson (1/5): The critic regards the comedy as a turkey. They single out its puerile humour and tasteless slapstick for criticism. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-v3nuwa/revenge-of-the-nerds/) ## Details - **Director:** Jeff Kanew - **Director:** Jeff Kanew - **Screenplay:** Steve Zacharias, Jeff Buhai - **Story:** Miguel Tejada-Flores, Steve Zacharias, Jeff Buhai, Tim Metcalfe - **Cinematography:** King Baggot - **Editor:** Alan Balsam - **Music:** Thomas Newman - **Production design:** James L. Schoppe - **Producer:** Peter Samuelson, Ted Field - **Cast:** Robert Carradine as Lewis Skolnick; Anthony Edwards as Gilbert Lowell; Timothy Busfield as Arnold Poindexter; Curtis Armstrong as 'Booger' Dawson; Larry B. Scott as Lamar Latrell; Andrew Cassese as Harold Wormser; Brian Tochi as Toshiro Takashi; Julia Montgomery as Betty Childs - **Runtime:** 1h 30m - **Certificate (MPA):** R - **Release (the US):** 20 July 1984 - **Genres:** Comedy - **Budget:** $6 million - **Box office:** $41 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIZH5TKnEeg ## Where to watch in the US Not streaming, renting or buying in the US at the last check. Also available in: GB. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Gregory's Girl* (1981): Awkward young people, generous jokes and embarrassment that feels recognisably human. - *The Castle* (1997): A gentler underdog comedy that makes its unlikely champions worth supporting. - *Linda Linda Linda* (2005): For outsider friendship that has time to develop between the jokes. - *Booksmart* (2019), Fi1m 81: Another unruly student comedy, with sharper jokes and more rounded friendships. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/booksmart.md) - *Breaking Away* (1979), Fi1m 86: For competitive underdogs whose frustrations matter as much as their ambitions. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/breaking-away.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/revenge-of-the-nerds