Movieline

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and 5 Other Nerd Classics on DVD

While Edgar Wright's criminally under-loved Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (out November 9 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment) pushed a lot of envelopes -- particularly in marrying cinema to video games, which until now has been, at best, a testy relationship -- it is, at its heart, a triumph-of-the-nerd movie. Scott (Michael Cera) may be an awkward and shy guy (in a band named for a Super Mario reference), but if he has to defeat the seven evil exes of the beautiful Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) in order to win her as his girlfriend -- then dude, that's just what he'll do.

Knowing full well that the Comic-Con crowd is going to be all over this release, Universal has lavished this Blu-ray with tons of extras (separate pieces on the film's music and its sound), featurettes, blogs, and even bloopers. And if the Scott Pilgrim home video release leaves you with a nerd boner that just won't quit, check out his brothers and sisters in triumphant awkwardness:

Revenge of the Nerds: Well, duh. But one shouldn't forget how subversive it was, during the Reagan era of sun-kissed blondes, to make a movie about gawky, pasty dudes winning the day and getting the hot chicks.

Real Genius: College brainiacs get tricked into developing a weapon for their vain professor, and then use it to take revenge on him. Val Kilmer -- who doesn't make comedies nearly as often as he should -- supplies a deadpan banter that makes him one of the screen's driest (and, arguably, sexiest) know-it-alls, as well as being one of the few '80s movie nerds not tethered to a nascent home computer (see: WarGames, Weird Science).

Ball of Fire: Barbara Stanwyck is a sass-mouth gangster's moll on the lam. Gary Cooper is a shy and sheltered professor whose entry for "Slang" in the new encyclopedia he's writing is hopelessly out of date. The hoochie and the egghead generate crazy sparks in this classic 1941 romantic comedy from Howard Hawks.

Desk Set: Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy made several rom-coms together, but this one is hands-down their nerdiest: He's the inventor of EMERAC, one of those 1950s room-size computers that has less memory than your microwave, and she's the head research librarian of a network, capable of recalling facts, figures, and old New York newspapers at the drop of a martini.

What's Up, Doc?: Barbra Streisand, in one of her most (even haters would acknowledge, "one of her few") appealing screen roles, happens to play a total nerd -- bring up anything from Transcendentalist poets to jet engine propulsion to geology to musicology, and her Judy Maxwell will give you a rapid-fire rundown of everything you need to know.