Rating: 
Summary: Christian Slater steals the air and this movie
Review: It's funny how the years can alter your view of the world...A dozen years ago I was a freewheeling do-as-I-wish dissenter of society and I loved the spirit of the kids in this film. My how the times have changed!Christian Slater stars as Mark Hunter a shy and introverted studious teenager by day who is harboring a secret identity from everyone else. Hunter has recently moved to the Arizona city of Paradise Valley and is attending the local high school Hubert Humphrey High, where all the students are at odds with the hardnosed bully of a principal. To combat both his own awkward attempts at conversations with fellow students (especially girls) and the intensely disliked principal, Mark becomes a pirate DJ using his short-wave radio his parents gave him for a gift. Behind the microphone and closed doors Mark becomes 'Hard Harry' who lives and breathes his motto "Talk Hard" nightly beginning at 10 sharp. His alternately bellicose and sanguine rants become 'a voice crying in the wilderness' for the students at HHH and overnight 'Hard Harry' becomes a hometown celebrity that has everyone at the high school talking about him. Suddenly the teenagers that were growing complacent and resigned to the rules, regulations and restrictions enforced upon them begin to liberate themselves. Students play their recorded tapes of his broadcast on boom boxes during the school lunch hour and they become the bane of the teachers who dislike the uncensored monologues, especially the putdowns of the teachers and principal who are named on the broadcasts. But when one of the callers to 'Hard Harry' commits suicide, the high school's core of leadership blame him for provoking the incident. The students naturally rebel against this unjust condemnation of their "hero of the airwaves" and begin expressing their indifference to the school officials. When it becomes a full-blown anarchy the local authorities and the FCC are called in to track 'Hard Harry' down and get him off the air leading to a final confrontation between the teenagers and the adults. Slater is cast perfectly as 'Hard Harry' and he steals the entire proceedings, far outshining any of the others in the movie. All of the teenagers are well cast and are entirely believable throughout the picture, but they remain mostly undefined with the exception of Samantha Mathis who plays Slater's love interest. Still director Allan Moyle ('Empire Records') creates an honest portrait of teen life as less than idyllic and somewhat cold. Teens are shown as being trapped within believable personal hells, problematic circles of existence and strained family relationships. While these seem like expected clichés in movies about teen angst Moyle gets his cast to bring them off with conviction. This practical approach doesn't get carried over to the adults however. Instead the student's rebellion is shown to be against an abhorrent and corrupt school administration run by heartless teachers and frigid officials wielding a cruel authority. At one point a school official (depicted in one-dimensional and unintentional hilarity) beats an expelled student who has come by the school to say he has the right to an education. Of course this happens in front of the entire student body during lunch hour and this incident sets off a riot at the school and results in the police and eventually the FCC getting involved. Why has Moyle created such an obvious juxtaposition of forces? The answer is simple...Hollywood doesn't take on 'the system'. Anti-establishment films are the forte of independent filmmakers and there are many such fine films out there worth searching out. In New Line Entertainment's 'Pump Up The Volume' Moyle is able to push the envelope only so far before he is forced to feel the constraints of an authority figure telling him "NO!" - ironically in much the same way the teens in the movie do! Another small problem with the film has to do with the character of 'Hard Harry'. Early on he rants on-air about the 60's radicals and the protests they incited, their collective disillusionment and anger against "the system" and how "they were gonna' change the world." He observes that they weren't anything but a lot of wind and that in fact nothing has changed. Yet 'Hard Harry' is so obviously a composite of Lenny Bruce and Abbie Hoffman that this sentiment is improperly placed here; during the early part of the film Slater reads Bruce's 'How To Talk Dirty And Influence People' and he sounds, acts and expresses himself exactly like a 60's radical. He's supposedly raving like this because of his personal disappointment with his parents, former 60's radicals now Ma & Pa 'yuppie'. Logically I suppose an inexperienced and wet-behind-the-ears teen would make such outlandish statements while being exactly what he is condemning but it still seems false and insensible. Still the film is well worth seeing for Slater's terrific star-making performance; when he urges the students to buck the societal conventions being pressed down upon them and suggests alternatives to conformity, he does so in such an honest, rational, likable - albeit profane - way that it's a genuine crowd pleasing moment. And despite my misgivings about some of the content of this film I still recommend a viewing because of it's stance against the oppression of censorship and also the great upbeat and fist-pumping ending - and Slater has one of the best closing lines in any film you'll see. 80's music aficionados will also appreciate the well-chosen songs that make up the superb soundtrack.
Rating: 
Summary: HHH
Review: This is a good movie! I enjoyed it alot. The is a story about a teen with a voice and what happens when it gets out of hand. It also deals with teen's views on authory.
Rating: 
Summary: A must for all teens
Review: This movie was THE movie when I was in highschool. This movie made me think and question society as a whole. Watching now just doesn't have the same effect as it did 5-10 years ago. I'm sure though that anyone who is in highschool could relate to any number of the characters in the movie. This is a must for all highschool kids.
Rating:
Summary: talk hard
Review: As a dvd I am a bit disapointed. No extras, no commentary, nothing. So I won't talk about it as a dvd. As a film, this is one of my favorite movies. Overlooking some of the problems it has with being realistic, it is one of Slater's stronger roles, and the type of role he plays well. The film attempts to tackle many issues, foremost being censorship. Whether or not it does a good job, I leave that you to decide. The movie also tries to be the 'voice' of a generation. And while it has a lot to say, has become a cult classic, and is full of great sound bites, I don't think the film achieved all the filmmakers set out to do. But it is an entertaining movie that gives you a lot to think about.
Rating:
Summary: One of Christian Slaters Best Films
Review: He should have won an Oscar for this one. Why it was so overlooked is beyond me.
Rating:
Summary: Great, empowering movie!
Review: This is an incredible movie all about free speech and questioning authority. Slater's character has so much inner strength. Watching this movie is just plain entertaining.
Rating: 
Summary: FINDING A VOICE?
Review: I hated this movie. People my age (when it was released) everywhere seemed to love it. Most of my friends loved Samantha Mathis's character. She was "strange" but strong. She tracked down this elusive underground DJ and made him hers. She just seemed pretentious and overbearing to me. I appreciate the sentiment of the film. Christian Slater is good as the underground DJ running an independent radio station, but of course, things get out of hand and his advice triggers some rather unfortunate events. The escalation of events is so unrealistic and silly, though, that I have to wonder about why this was so popular. I guess it was popular with young people because they like to feel like they have power or a voice. Or they like to be portrayed as though they do. But you never hear about anything like this-on this scale-in real life.
Rating:
Summary: "I Know You...Not Your Name But Your Game"
Review: Pump Up The Volume is probably one of the first of the "Gen X" movies to appear in the wake of the John Hughes classics of the early and mid-80s. This film, released in 1990, touches on a myriad of issues that effect teens today as then. They don't seem to make movies like this anymore, movies that touch on serious issues as isolation, alienation, sexuality, education reform, freedom of speech, censorship, suicide, the failure of mandatory standardized scholastic testing, etc etc. This movie has got it all. The story revolves around a quiet student at Hubert Humphrey High, a large suburban school in Arizona. His parents are sell-out former hippies who have produced in him a resentment of the failed idealistic values of the 60s generation which have created a fallout whose repercussions are still felt today. Mark is a loner who cannot communuicate with his teachers or his peers. He is an intelligent and creative recluse who eats his lunch alone, reading a book, while the problems of high school life swirl around him. It is only as his secret pirate radio alter-ego Hard Harry that he finds his voice and is able to speak to those diseffected peers who share his fate at a school that reflects the flawed and conformist society at large that has not only overlooked the problems of his generation, but continues to add to them by treating the kids as second-class citizens. The school princial, who is obsessed with standardized test scores and the prestige of her school, flags "problem" students who threaten to tarnish school image and pull down test scores and has them expelled rather than try to help these kids who truly need help, while the school councelor rats out these same students to the corrupt administration when he should be the one providing them with the guidance they need. And to make matters worse, the one concerned teacher who dares to stand up for her students is fired for insubordination. As Hard Harry begins to make an impact, other afflicted students begin to open up with their problems to an outlet thatn is genuine and not some contrived school-sponsered joke. Harry confronts a isolated over-achiever who takes his own life rather than face another day at his "award-winning" school. Another caller describes an incident of homophobic violence commited by the school jocks. In the end, Harry finds he must face his problems without his mask of anonyimity and face up to being the icon of hope that he has become. Pump Up the Volume is a fine movie with a great soundtrack and speaks to alot of the issues that plauge us in this post-Columbine age. It is defiantely one to watch.
Rating:
Summary: pretty good - for a Christian Slater flick
Review: I watched this film under duress. My husband LOVES this movie and I got it for him for Christmas. I am NOT a big Christian Slater fan, but this one has a good message and with a minimal amount of cussing and violence. Very down-to-earth and realistic.
Rating:
Summary: What an insult
Review: Cool radio-pirate DJ Hard Talk Harry Hardon by night, quiet guy by day. And of course, his appearance changes each time. By night he is a "cool" with his slicked back hair and his back straight. By day he wears glasses, ehhibits the
classic "geek" hair style, and hunches over. Of course we find later when he removes his shirt that he really is quite muscular. The heroine is based on the rather classic high-school heroine girl, invented by Tim Burton in Beetlejuice. She is introspective and slightly goth. Reads much, and has friends at school who cannot appreciate her depth. Short
black hair and libidinous skin. Wears black alot. She sometimes exhibits a remarkable fashion sense, and she is at once moody and clear-headed, impulsive
and sensible. Her sense of adventure and her attraction to DJ's pornographic rant (much of his early rant is porno - only does he gain maturity [a little] later in his invented DJ personality) leads her to seek out his identity. He is stupid enough to run away from her during her first approaches. Since we are given to understand that his socialitization (sp) experiences lead him reject everyone (even though we are to understand that he had many friends at his old high school), so he does reject her at first. There are evens scenes where she deliberately taunts him sexually, as he falters and is nervous. Most of the film was exaggerated. That such rants could provide such an outcry in a school is not possible. This reviewer lives at Antioch College, he knows the reaction-rate of even Concerned Young Citizens. Even if noticed, such
a radio crank would produce no such stir in the Adult Community. It was especially funny to watch how the FCC vans met where all the students gathered to hear his show. For absolutely no reason. The way they chased him,
and the way even helicopters got into the picture. At least the camera angles and the acting was not bad (although the acting of the hero just confused me about his personality - is he schitzophrenic?). The film made me realize one thing: the power that scripwriters have on lives. The real message of the film was not bad. It was a combanation of "speak out!" and to take cognizance of the injustice in the world in which we live. To take matters into our own hands and to CARE. The movie's plot took these themes and presented it in a plot designed for teenagers. It is unfortunate that the movie managed to insult teenagers as well. I give it two stars for good acting and social revelance.
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