‘Revenge of the Nerds,’ the wacky classic, hits Hulu

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Nerds!!!

Gilbert, Louis, Booger, Ogre, Lamar and Dean Ulich (heh) have climbed their way back out of cinematic semi-obscurity with the help of Hulu.com. The 1984 cult classic ‘Revenge of the Nerds’ joins ‘The Jewel of the Nile’ and the mini-masterpiece ‘Sexy Beast’ as the latest full-length, uncensored movies to go up on the premium video site. Hulu’s collection of freely available online movies has swollen to include more than 200 films from all eras, including a surprising number that you might actually want to watch.

But rescuing ‘Nerds’ from the video store shelf is an inspired act of product promotion. This film has a timelessly juvenile quality that should still tickle college types today, is perfect for watching on a laptop while you’re doing something else and may well have outsize appeal to the community of what you might call technology-inclined cinephiles.

The film, shot at the University of Arizona, stars recognizable actors such as Anthony Edwards, John Goodman and Timothy Busfield, as well as the character actors this film made famous, Curtis Armstrong (Dudley ‘Booger’ Dawson) and Donald Gibb (‘Fred ‘The Ogre’ Palowakski’). And if nothing else, it’s worth watching just for the belching contest (as pictured above).

The playback includes a series of commercial interruptions -- seven of them during 90 minutes, which is about what you’d get on TV. But each interruption is only 30 seconds, and this R-rated movie is not bleeped, dubbed or censored like it would be on the public airwaves. The only catch is that in order to watch, you’ve got to sign up for a free Hulu account. A sweet deal if you love the Tri-lambs.

-- David Sarno