Nerd Nirvana
When I reviewed "Revenge of the Nerds" I mentioned that despite the familiarity of the storyline it was still entertaining. What I should have also mentioned is that "Revenge of the Nerds" was fun with some clever humour where as the sequel "Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise" is fun because it is silly. In fact I think I counted only one semi clever gag in the entire movie surrounding the sign to the Hotel Coral Essex being converted to the Hotel Oral Sex. But the lack of clever humour isn't an issue because whilst not as good as the first movie "Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise" is still fun.
The members of Tri-Lambda have been asked to represent Adams at the convention of fraternities in Fort Lauderdale and as Gilbert (Anthony Edwards) is laid up with a broken leg it will be up to Lewis (Robert Carradine) to lead them. But on arriving at their hotel Lewis, Booger (Curtis Armstrong), Lamar (Larry B. Scott), Arnold (Timothy Busfield) and Harold (Andrew Cassese) find some things never change and as nerds they are not welcome. Forced to find a hotel when the manager cancels their booking they find the only vacant room is in the run down Hotel Coral Essex but even then the Jocks from the Beta fraternity including Ogre (Donald Gibb) want them gone and do their best to force them out of Florida, using the pretty Sunny Carstairs (Courtney Thorne-Smith) to try and lead Lewis astray.
So on a positive note at least "Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise" didn't just rehash the first movie and managed to move things to a new location and bring in some new enemies to neuter the nerds. But in truth that is about as good as it gets because beyond that we go back to what is expected which is are band of nerds having to deal with the jocks of Beta fraternity trying to destroy them. And unfortunately instead of trying to come up with some clever humour most of it borders on the silly, from over using Lewis's laugh to Booger finding his mentor, the Chinese man known as Snotty. Don't get me wrong as it is still entertaining but it is very much in the world of stupidity which unlike the first movie is not as much fun when watched a second time. Even the dated musical scene is not as entertaining despite now being comically cheesy.
Another issue with "Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise" going for silly instead of smart satire is that the characters are very much underwritten or at least the new ones. Bradley Whitford is a flat cliche as Roger whilst Courtney Thorne-Smith is certainly pretty as love interest Sunny Carstairs but is such a one dimensional character it is ridiculous. Thankfully the returning characters and actors are still as much fun and whilst Anthony Edwards is hardly in it Robert Carradine is as good as ever as is Curtis Armstrong as Booger but also Donald Gibb who probably has the best part this time as Ogre.
What this all boils down to is that "Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise" is still fun but not as much fun as "Revenge of the Nerds" purely because it just delivers silly comedy instead of anything close to being clever.
