[6]

The ‘Nerds’ return for a slightly inferior sequel centering around a fraternity conference in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, where the adversarial Alpha Beta fraternity frames the nerds for a crime they didn’t commit and tries to get them expelled from the fraternal order. Robert Carradine returns as the lead nerd, but Anthony Edwards takes a cameo role (maybe he was busy shooting Top Gun?) this time around. Curtis Armstrong’s Booger character is given more screentime, including a master/apprentice subplot involving belching and loogie lessons from James Hong (Big Trouble in Little China). Donald Gibb also returns as the hulking, dim-witted Ogre, whose character experiences somewhat of an identity crisis in the sequel — a pleasant turn of events that gives just a little bit of emotional weight to the final act. A musical number in the middle does the movie no favors, but there’s just enough laughs and character-driven charm to make Nerds in Paradise worthwhile for fans of the first movie. Look for The West Wing‘s Bradley Whitford as the smarmy head of the Alpha Betas and Melrose Place‘s Courtney Thorne-Smith as Carradine’s love interest. With Timothy Busfield, Larry B. Scott, and Ed Lauter.