REVENGE OF THE NERDS 3: THE NEXT GENERATION
A film review by Ken Johnson
Copyright 1992 Ken Johnson
96 min., not rated, Comedy, 1992, made for television Director: Roland Mesa Cast: Robert Carradine, Ted McGinley, Curtis Armstrong, Julie Montgomery, Gregg Binkley, Richard Israel, Morton Downey, Jr., John Pinette, Grant Heslov, Henry Cho, Tim Conlon, Bernie Casey, Jamie Cromwell, Larry B. Scott, Brian Tochi, Mike Greenwood
Adams College, the site of the original nerds movie, is now run by nerds. The Tri-Lambda fraternity is now number one and Alpha Beta, the very popular jock frat from the original film, is now the lowest of the frats. Robert Carradine, one of the original nerds, is now married to Julie Montgomery, jock Ted McGinley's girlfriend from the original, and working at the Computer Center at the College. Carradine refuses to admit that he was a nerd in his past and tries to hide it from himself now. His son Gregg Binkley is now going to Adams as a freshman and has joined the Tri-Lambda frat. McGinley gets put in as dean of the College, and since he hates nerds, starts a war against them. He has the Alpha Beta's start war against the Tri-Lambda's and causes a war between the jocks and the nerds.
REVENGE OF THE NERDS is one of the best films that I have ever seen. REVENGE OF THE NERDS 2: NERDS IN PARADISE is quite possibly the worst film that I have ever seen. I figured that REVENGE OF THE NERDS 3: THE NEXT GENERATION couldn't be as bad or worse than NERDS 2; I was wrong! It sucks! It is pathetically worse than awful! There is no way that I can recommend this film to anybody unless you are a couch potato that will watch anything; it is just a piece of garbage. On a scale of zero to five, I give NERDS 3 a zero.
The beginning of the problem lies in its story line, which was written by Steve Zacharias and Jeff Buhai. It starts out as a carbon copy of REVENGE OF THE NERDS, with two nerds in a car going to Adams College figuring out what time they will reach the campus (sound familiar?). At this point I was starting to ask myself, what have I gotten myself into? Now, here comes the *big* difference, the fraternities have changed their roles. Wow, I am thinking, a lot of work went into this film! Now the rest of the film is based on the war between the frats and Robert Carradine having to remember that he is a nerd (which you will remember he did at the end of the first film--boy is he forgetful!). The war, which is the high point of the film, isn't even very interesting. In the first film the war was great; the pigs at the party, the panty raid, the fake initiation, the pies. None of this stuff here, now we will resort to throwing people into pools and writing "nerd" onto the back of someone's head. Interesting stuff, huh? Now, during this war we are supposed to root for these nerds. In the first film there was no problem with that because they were cool people, but in this film they are just stupid. Then came along Booger, Curtis Armstrong, from REVENGE OF THE NERDS, just maybe my favorite character. Now I figured that the film will get going good. No chance, not even his role was well written. He had lost all of his charm. Now comes the big finale, and if you are still awake at this point you deserve a medal; if not, don't feel bad, you don't miss anything. I am glad that I rewatched REVENGE OF THE NERDS before viewing this film, that way I can remember a time when the nerds were funny and great to watch. Let's hope nobody gets the bright idea (?) to write a REVENGE OF THE NERDS 4: NERDS GETTING PUT DOWN AT THE WORKPLACE or something like that.
The acting, in nerds, jocks, nerd alumni, and jock alumni is horrible. Even the experienced (?) actors in the film (Robert Carradine, Ted McGinley, Curtis Armstrong, Julie Montgomery, and Morton Downey, Jr.) look pathetic. It doesn't look like anyone tried too hard to make this film look good. The new nerds are about as convincing as a banana pretending to be a pineapple. I don't know where they got these actors but they must not have tried too hard. When Morton Downey, Jr. came on the screen I figured that he would put a little effort into his role, but that was wishful thinking. Now, you would expect something from Robert Carradine, a two-time nerder. After he falls flat and Curtis Armstrong comes on I said now the movie has been saved. Now I am saying maybe Downey, Jr.'s acting isn't that bad after all! I have never thought much of Ted McGinley ("Married... with Children") but in this film he seems to be trying the hardest. Poor Julie Montgomery (billed as Julia Montgomery) the script doesn't give her a chance to do anything. Maybe she could have saved this film, but by this time I think it had sunk into the pit of no return.
The sets were rather good. They were the best part of the film I think. They looked realistic and that is good enough. The cinematography was okay, but nothing really spectacular. If you missed this film when it ran on Monday night on the Fox Television Network, don't feel sorry for yourself--consider yourself lucky. If you did watch it, I feel sorry for you, and if you stayed through the entire film, you are a very strong person. If you like the nerds, I suggest watching REVENGE OF THE NERDS again and forgetting about this one (and REVENGE OF THE NERDS 2: NERDS IN PARADISE for that matter).
Spoilers: only read on after seeing the film (or if you aren't going to bother seeing the film you may continue).
The biggest letdown in the film, at least for me, was the ending. First of all I could see it coming from a mile away and knew just about what was going to happen. That really spoiled the *BIG (??)* climax. Then when the old frat mates of Robert Carradine came in I was very disappointed for a few reasons. First of all Anthony Edwards, who played Carradine's best friend, didn't come back; instead they had a cheap imposter, Mike Greenwood, who looks nothing like Edwards. Second of all, the only frat mates who showed up were the homosexual, Larry B. Scott, the oriental, Brian Tochi, the little smart dude, Carradine's father, Cromwell, and the leader of the Tri-Lambda national office, Bernie Casey. What happened to all the other people? Did they think that we would just forget about them? Most likely I think that those actors, and Anthony Edwards, didn't want to have anything to do with this mess and listened to Nancy Reagan and "Just Said No."
Ken J. blj@mithradir.cs.unh.edu
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