Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation

"Revenge of the Nerds III" is nothing more than an excuse to have a reunion of the cast from the original "Revenge of the Nerds." It astounds me how moviemakers keep making inferior sequels. Haven't they learned anything by now? After being subjected to the cruel pranks of the jocks in the first movie and then some more hardship from the mediocre "Revenge of the Nerds II," the nerds have finally received the death penalty: a TV-movie sequel! And what a terrible way to die! It's one thing to make a bad sequel made for the theatre, but making a weak TV-movie sequel is a catastrophe! "Revenge of the Nerds III" wasn't funny at all, and it looks like they just barely had enough money to throw away on this movie. Here's a visual summary of all this....

############################################################# ############################################################# #######################/------------\########################## ######################!---R.I.P.-----!!######################### ######################!---------------!!####################### ######################!----THE------!!######################### ######################!---NERDS---!!######################### ######################!---------------!!######################## ######################!-1984-1992---!!######################## ######################!---------------!!######################### ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^!=*=***++++=!!^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

With the likable characters from the first two films all grown up, they are given far smaller supporting roles here, as we are introduced to a new range of characters, most of which are sadly are underdeveloped and lack the charm of the original nerds. In spite of this, the usual silliness, predictability, and fades to black that carry on far too long, the film is still moderately entertaining, and there are quite a few songs that are amusing to listen to. It is not a very well made film, but it is engaging enough to keep one watching for the running time, even if it is far off the level of the first two entries in the series.

I don't know what compelling reason there was to make this movie in the first place. If it was trying to cash in on the success of the 1984 original (and the 1987 sequel, to a lesser extent), Fox would have put it in theatres. Then again, maybe that was the original idea. This wouldn't be the first film to simply go direct to TV and video when they studio decided not to waste time with a theatrical release.

The movie itself just isn't very funny. It's a rehash of the events in the first movie, but doesn't have the raunchy edge of that film, nor does it have the peculiar but undeniable heart that actually gave the original some emotional punch. Comparing the scene at the pep rally there and the finale here in court is kind of comparing a small diamond to a big piece of broken glass.

The new nerds also aren't very interesting, and Gregg Binkley tries hard but doesn't have the weird watchable quality that Robert Carradine does. If you'll look closely the credits list "Chi" in the cast; that's Chi McBride, playing Malcolm Pennington III, and giving almost no indication that he'd emerge as a terrific actor (and certainly none that he'd be the breakthrough star on BOSTON PUBLIC, playing Steven Harper).

One thing that sort of caught my attention was the way the nerds here kept making implicit references to other minority groups. When Lewis refuses to help his cousin and other persecuted nerds, he's labeled "a self-hating nerd." Another character says they need "as many nerds in power as they can get." And when a character admits at the film's end that he's a secret nerd, he says "It feels great to come out of the closet!" The point seems to be that being a nerd is like being black, gay, Jewish, female, from another country, what have you. It's a strange point.

The film has another actor play Gilbert near the end, as Anthony Edwards followed up on his very brief role in the 2nd movie by not appearing here at all. He didn't appear in part 4 either, and III came out a few years before he broke through on ER. Didn't like seeing someone else play his role, but it fit this misshapen, boring film.

There is one great line here. When Lewis and wife Betty ask the local college DJ to broadcast in the name of nerd freedom, the DJ stands up and says, "There's no greater friend to the nerd, than the American DJ. If we weren't all nerds ourselves, we'd all be on television." It's such a good line that it overlooks that most college radio stations have so little listening range that the DJ might be the only person who gets the message.

A rather unnecessary third movie, and it just felt like the writers were beating a dead horse by this point. It was essentially just a re-write of the first movie, but with some added material to incorporate some of the characters from the first two movies. Writers Steve Zacharias and Jeff Buhai really took the easy way out here and just re-wrote the script from the first movie, so talk about lazy writing. And just as in the previous movie, another of the bullies went 360 and turned nerd in this third movie. Feel free to insert a face slap right here.

Good to see Robert Carradine, Ted McGinley, Curtis Armstrong, Larry B. Scott, Bernie Casey, James Cromwell and Brian Tochi, from the previous two movies back together, even though just for a brief moment, as most of them hardly have any screen time other than showing up in the court room. The acting performances in the movie were fair.

I have to say that director Roland Mesa's 1992 movie "Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation" felt fully and wholly unnecessary, and there weren't much of any laughs to be had throughout the course of the 93 minutes that the movie ran for.

My rating of "Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation" lands on a generous four out of ten stars.

Revenge of the Nerds III (1992) was one of several made-for-t.v. movies that premiered on FOX. Even though this one is a slight improvement over the last movie it's still bad. I don't even know why the FOX network bothered showing this movie. Although it has a more interesting story and a return of several characters, the end results are not satisfactory. But if you're a big Revenge of the Nerds fan, you'll be in "nerd" heaven. Others stay away.

A slight improvement over the horrendous part II, Revenge of the Nerds III is a bad movie. I can't recommend something like this. Watch if you must but don't say I didn't warn you!

Not recommended.