REVENGE OF THE NERDS (1984)

The story on this one’s pretty simple: college-age jocks vs. college-age nerds at a school that apparently has no actual classes nor any kind of rules of conduct.

Two best friends, Lewis and Gilbert, arrive at Adams College and are almost immediately kicked out of their dorm, along with a bunch of other “nerds”, to make room for some football players who partied so hard that they burned down their own fraternity house. The nerds join a different frat and from then on it’s just frat versus frat pranks and hijinks. Including such knee-slapping tomfoolery as sexual assault, illegally installing cameras in a female frat house and rape by deception. It’s a feel good adventure for the whole family!

Released in the summer of 1984, I was just a kid and I remember watching this movie a number of times. Mainly because it had a few tits in it, but it was also funny. Revisiting the film now for this review, it’s kind of shocking at just how caveman this movie is. That said, it does have it moments and, I guess, historically it is kind of important. At least as far as 1980’s pop culture goes.

Quick pace, solid cast that seem to be dedicated to their roles (I wish James Cromwell had a bigger role), dated humor, one clearly underage student partying with older students (and taking part in a "panty raid"), a goofy goose-like honk laugh, no teachers, zero strong female characters, zero gore, zero blood, not as much nudity as you would expect, vintage clothing fashions.

REVENGE OF THE NERDS is definitely dated and could (should) be seen as offensive to modern audiences, but hey, the 80's were all kinds of fucked up. If you're curious about it, then it's worth checking out.

[Update: This has absolutely nothing to do with the review, but while I was going through old newspapers looks for ads I noticed that on the weekend that Nerds debuted these movies were also showing (No wonder I spend so much time at the theater when I was a kid!)…GHOSTBUSTERS, GREMLINS, THE NEVERENDING STORY, THE KARATE KID, THE LAST STARFIGHTER, THE MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN, INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM, CONAN THE DESTROYER, STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK and more. Plus, PURPLE RAIN came out the next week. Fuckin’ sick]

Part 2 - Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise (1987)
Part 3 - Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation (1992)
Part 4 - Revenge of the Nerds IV: Nerds in Love (1994)

RAMPAGE (1987)

“The women’s bodies were cut open to get at the organs.”

Charles Reece (Alex McArthur) is a murderous, blood-sucking freak who walks around town blasting innocent people with an unsilenced handgun before sexual assaulting and disemboweling their corpses. He also likes to drink the blood of the dead to replace his own poisoned blood (cuz that’s how that works). Anthony Fraser (Michael Biehn) is a liberal-minded prosecutor who decides to go for the death penalty with Reece’s case.

Originally filmed in 1987, but not released theatrically until 1992, although I did locate a film festival in September 1987 where it played twice (see clippings below), William Friedkin’s RAMPAGE is a mess. The basic story, a fictionalized retelling of the crimes of Richard Chase, is mildly entertaining, but once he gets arrested (way too early in the film) things just bog down, down, down until you can feel your own poisoned blood coagulating in your cursed arteries.

Up and down pace, super impressive cast, way less violence than you would probably expect, a wicked shot of Reece fantasizing about bathing in blood while sitting in a tiger enclosure (I swear on Fred Durst’s grave that when I saw this film back in the 1990’s, the camera shot was wider and you could see three tigers), solid acting, the single darkest courtroom in movie history, a little blood, zero gore, zero nudity, a real hatred for expert witnesses, multiple interesting scenes that were cut short while other (less imaginative) scenes were left in.

I’m not sure which version of this film I originally saw back in the day and I’m not even sure that it matters. Watching RAMPAGE in 2025 is going to be disappointing for (I would think) everybody. There is just such a vast amount of superior serial killer and crime genre stuff out there nowadays. For example, I recently watched the show Dept. Q (Season 1) in two sittings and time just flew by! I couldn't get enough. Then I sit down today to revisit RAMPAGE and while I was fascinated by the cast, the story (especially the courtroom stuff) was dead on arrival.

I'm sure there's Friedkin freaks out there that absolutely love this movie, but it's just not my cup of non-poisoned blood anymore. I do remember liking it when it first came out, but it has not aged well. That said, if they ever come out with a definitive, remastered version of RAMPAGE, I would watch it.