Reasons why I love “Pump Up The Volume“.
1. The Hair of Christian Slater
It is almost a character in itself. The way it moves when he is dancing with the golf club.. mesmerizing!
2. The music
There’s a fairly wide range of music played but this movie was my introduction to Leonard Cohen, and I have been a fan ever since.
3. The teenage band of malcontents
While Hard Harry is broadcasting, you see the listeners and their reactions to what he is saying. It’s easy to just accept that at face value, but if you look a little closer you’ll see a lot of details of the lives of these people in the shots.
4. Shep Shepard
– totally the typical stereotype of a reporter – and reminds me much of Shepard Smith from Fox News.
5. Paige Woodward
– who literally nukes her problems.
6. The maggot puswad school principal
– she’s totally evil but karma bites her in the ass in the end. That’s what we like to see in a movie.. ;)
7. Nora
– played by Samantha Mathis.
8. The Search
Nora does what any sane girl would do in a situation where someone apparently goes to her school is a pirate dj who she’s quite attracted to. She sets out on a search to find him, writing down all kinds of little facts about himself that he mentions during his shows. Of course, because he does not realise he’s giving away these little bits of info about himself, she manages to track him down when he mentions he sits in a stairwell reading a book at lunchtime.
9. Billy Morrissette
I don’t know if he is related to Alanis, but he was married to Maura Tierney (you’ll remember her from ER) and has now written and directed a film which starred Christopher Walken – Scotland, Pa.
10. The half naked scene.
11. Seth Green
– making a small appearance with long hair!
12. Christian Slater, again
– it’s a brilliant performance.
The movie has some awesome lines as well, these are my particular favourites –
This is Hard Harry reminding you to eat your cereal with a fork, and do your homework in the dark.
One day I woke up, and I realised I was never gonna be normal. So I said Fuck It, I said So Be It. And Happy Harry Hardon was born.
They think you’re moody, make ’em think you’re crazy. Make ’em think you might snap!
I say rise up in the cafeteria and stab them with your plastic forks.
Sephy reviewed it a little while ago here, which served to inspire me to make something with screenshots. ;)
If you enjoyed this review, you might also enjoy these other reviews.
Pump Up The Volume
William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
The Pirate Movie
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Chocolat
Shakespeare In Love
Dead Poets Society
Saw it, liked it well enough back in the day, wouldn’t see it again. The music from that period goes through me like a knife, although the Pixies are on the soundtrack, and Bad Brains, but when I want to hear them I just pump up my own volume. If you know what I mean.
Not only have I seen it Snoskred.
I own the soundtrack.
Yes. That’s right.
It began my long-time fervour for The Pixies.
And Titanium Expose is still one of my favourite Sonic Youth tracks.
I’m not sure whether this or ‘Heathers’ is my favourite Christian Slater movie of the time. It could go either way, depending on how I feel.
I loved that movie when it came out. Huge crush on Christian Slater, absolutely wanted to be like Nora.
Anna Falactic – aww come on, it’s just because you don’t have a crush on Christian Slater, right? Admit it.. ;)
Gigglewick, I knew we had much in common, I didn’t quite expect this though. I too find it hard to choose which is my favourite between this and Heathers – I have not found Heathers on DVD yet though. Are you a Pirate Movie fan too? It can’t be possible, surely!
reddirtroad – I believe I have tried to have her hairstyle on several occasion without actually realising that was what I was doing.. :)
Thanks for your comments guys, much appreciated. I might be doing more of these movie reviews, it’s kind of fun. :)
Love a movie review, Snoskred! And this made me want to have a blunt cut and wear red lipstick all over again!
I’ve always thought that Heathers got way more play than this much finer film simply because it got lost in the whole John Hughes Pretty In Pink teen angst genre.
And yeah, it introduced me to Leonard Cohen too but as someone said above, I have trouble watching it because the music does, indeed, cut deep.
Thanks for dropping by my place. Have enjoyed my visit here.
Meva – just wait for the next one.. I’m already taking screenshots.. :) it’s gonna be lots of fun!!
a. Heathers got slightly less play at my place, I just really loved this story better. And while Heathers was great fun and Christian really was having a great time playing that role, you could just tell, I liked the bigger picture and the slightly more leaning towards reality with PUTV.
Thanks for dropping by! :)
Cheers you guys!
I saw this movie ages ago and loved it. And yes, your review has inspired me to get a copy and watch it again! It is funny because reading your review, it pretty much hit all the reasons I loved it. Definitely will be watching again, and soon! :)
I haven’t seen it but I could appreciate your thorough analysis. I just wanted to leave a comment and thank you for commenting on my blog.
It’s a wonderful movie, and yup, you’ve inspired me to want to see it again. :)
Hi – thanks for the comment. I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I haven’t seen this movie! It’s now on my to-see list.
I love Pump Up the Volume. It’s one of those movies that I end up getting sucked into whenever I see it on.
your review was more of a reminder that i have never seen this film. on to my netflix queue!
Thanks for visiting my blog. But, even more thanks for the suggestion to write about the things I will leave behind.
T-Bud
Wow! It’s been a while since I’ve seen this movie!
Thanks for stopping by mine :)
Deb – glad to hear it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.. :)
Vikki, thanks for your comment, and you’re welcome ;)
Thomma Lyn – great, I was hoping this would happen. The movie is out on DVD and it’s pretty cheap here, so maybe check out how much it is where you’re at :)
Jhianna – this comes as no surprise to me. I think we’re virtually twins! ;) hehe
Kirsten – cool, let me know what you think when you see it, ok? ;)
T-Bud – I thought it might be fun to reverse things, I’ll drop back to see how you go :)
Teena – It had been quite a while for me as well, till I picked it up on dvd.. ;) Now I’ve seen it twice in a week, and I can sense it will be played quite often from now on.. :)
Thanks everyone for your lovely comments, much appreciated! ;)