Pump Up the Volume

What a film!!, this is a film that very accurately represents how it feels to be unpopular, or the new kid in high school. Slater gained much respect from me for his terrific performance is Hard Harry, a new kid at a school where the staff don't seem to care about the students, Harry runs a pirate radio station as an anonymous student at the high school, and shares his feelings about the school, he gains a large following of students who feel the same way he does, but then trouble starts. This is a truly great film, with great performances, this is probably the "Rebel Without A Cause", for our generation. ***1/2 out of ****.

I loved this film

When I was 17 I first saw the second half of this movie on TV, the next day I scoured my local video shops to buy the film so that I could watch the first half.

I know that sounds a little sad but I really felt that at the time this film was spot on. Parents do seem to hate you, it is incredibly hard to talk to a girl that you want to ask out and school is the last place you ever want to be. This film had the emotions just about right.

I now see its faults but I still feel that it is an excellent movie to its targeted age group, everyone who ever wanted to "rise up in the cafeteria and stab them (teachers) with your plastic fork".

I could fill this review with quotes, the speech on why teen suicide is a bad idea is up there with the "Am I funny?" scene in goodfella's.

Christian Slater is excellent, apparently it's his favourite movie and you can see that he enjoyed making it. He does dark-teen like no one else, this is Nicholson at 16! In my humble opinion this film is at the top of the teen-flick chart alongside Heathers.

Samantha Mathis makes an intriguing leading lady, she really gets her character spot on. Miss Mathis also provides one of the best sexual tension scenes ever in this genre. (it's all in the music)

A young Seth Green also makes an appearance that I am sure he would rather forget, his acting is fine it's how he looks thats the problem !!

This film is dark, funny and brutaly honest. If you are under 20 and still hate the world this will kill a couple of those boring 'too old to play to young to drink' hours.

Highly recommended.

This movie really captured not only the disillusionment and pain of adolescence but also the general malaise of our postmodern society. Also brought out the tension between media "for the people" and free speech vs. media polluting the people and issues of censorship. While the film clearly made the latter out to be the "bad guy," a mature person might look beyond the pointed message and see the important issues on both sides --> Does media come from culture and speak truth, having the responsibility to honestly represent "reality," or does media influence culture and thus should it responsibly rise above mediocrity, challenging people to something higher in life? Tough issues in media studies. How to bring the two concerns together is the challenge, in a completely corporate-driven media culture that really stands for neither.

ummmm.... Christian Slater was also great in the lead performance.

I first saw this film around 1996, when I was 13 and just going into that 'I hate the world and everything about it' phase that most teenagers go through. I fell in love with it there and then and over the years I've owned 5 separate copies.

Not just because of the unbelievably brilliant soundtrack, not just because of the real and relate-able characters, not just because of the engaging and original plot, but because I still feel now, what I first felt when I saw the film. Sometimes everyone feels that they're alone and it takes another voice, one coming from a someone you might not even ever have met reminding you that everyone feels that crushing loneliness and only you can change that.

Even now that I'm nearing my mid-twenties and every time I watch this film I want to 'Rise up in the cafeteria' and 'stab my teachers with a plastic fork.' Being a teenager sucks, its probably the most free time of your life, but everything from parents, to homework, to hormones prevents most from truly enjoying the experience.

I want every teenager to watch this film, I want every person who looks back on their teen years with regret to watch this film, I want every person who's forgotten what its like to be a teenager to watch this film. I think there's room in just about everyone's heart for it.

I'm 28 now, but this film is still very important to me. PUTV is the best teen drama out there (though there aren't many to compete with it), it really grasps how so alone some teenagers can feel and how rejectedby the system they so often are. The film has dated some what, but if there ever was an early warning sign of the problems that face American schools today (columbine esque) this is it. You can only push teenagers so far before they lose the plot, end up killing themselves or other people, PUTV is about those feelings. Slater is the bomb in this film, he is truly awesome and Mathis plays a great sidekick. The fact she shows a bit of flesh makes the movie highly genuine, yes girls do get naked with boys whilst at high school. PUTV does now suffer with its meaning to the modern era, but modern kids still do get dejected and rejected and this film is a great message in saying.... You Are Not Alone! 10/10 Then.... 8/10 Now.