Pump up the Volume

Pump up the Volume
DVD
1990

I discovered this film when Showtime was airing it in the early 90s. And I was the perfect age. I was in high school. Didn't fit in.And this film spoke to me

Christian Slater is Mark AKA Happy Harry Hard on. His Dad has just got a new job. The caused the family to move from the east coast to Arizona. Mark is going to the best school in the area. But you get the feeling something is up.

Each night at 10pm a pirate radio show hits the airwaves. Happy Harry Hardon,who is Mark. He plays all kinds of great music. Reads letters from his fans and just generally acts a fool. The show is slowly building a fanbase with the local teens. Then one night Harry gets a letter from someone. Who says they are thinking about committing suicide. They included their phone number. So Harry calls them on the air. In the middle of the call the teen hangs up. The next day at school Mark finds out the caller has killed himself.

Harry's show is a huge hit. One of the teens is recording and selling cassettes of the show. Because Mark's father works for the school district he has access to all kinds of inside information. We start to learn that the principal is doing some shady stuff.

There is one lady that writes to Harry all the time. This is Samantha Mathis as Nora. She uses the various clues Harry gives to figure out he is actually Mark. The next night on the show Harry tells everyone to take control of their lives and destroy the stuff holding them back. Well one of the rich preppie girls does just that. She takes a bunch of stuff from her room,loads it all up in the microwave and sits there as it causes the microwave to explode.

This causes the principal to freak out and call an emergency meeting with all the parents. Lots of the parents are calling the cops about Harry's show. So the FCC gets brought in.

When I first saw this movie besides the message Harry is putting out,which is be yourself and stop worrying about what others think,the music he plays really connected with me. The soundtrack is loaded with all kinds of great music. You got the Pixies,Soundgarden,Concrete Blonde,Ice T,The Descendents and even Leonard Cohen. After seeing the movie the first time I bought the soundtrack. And listened to it over and over for months.

Pump up the Volume gets a A-. In some ways this is companion piece to Heathers. It isn't as dark. But still as good.

Poison Ivy TV movie 1985

Poison Ivy
Made for TV
1985

I remember watching this as a pre-teen. Thanks to Family Ties I was a huge Michael J Fox fan. And I liked Nancy McKeon from her work on Facts of Life

I have always loved films set at summer camps. Maybe cause I always wanted to goto summer camp,but I never went.

The plot is kind of generic. Fox is Dennis Baxter a camp counselor. We start off with him at a train station. He is in charge of making sure the kids in his cabin make it to camp. One of them,Timmy,is always  trying to run away. The rest of the kids fit your normal summer camp film stereotypes. There is the fat kid. The smart kid. The sports/jock kid. And then you got the con man kid.

They arrive at camp and Dennis quickly sets his eyes on the new nurse. Rhonda who is played by McKeon. You get your normal camp hijinks. The smart kid is in love with Rhonda,and keeps sending her anonymous love notes. Towards the end the camp gets divided up into two teams. The red team and the blue team. And they compete in events. Timmy who is scared of the water. Becomes a great swimmer and helps his team win.

I hadn't seen this since it first aired back in the mid 80s. But I remembered loving it. The other day I was looking around on youtube and found that someone had uploaded the entire film. Now it isn't anything special. But I did have a blast watching it again. I wish this was out on DVD or Blu Ray. And I am kind of surprised with how big a star Fox is that it hasn't gotten a digital release.

Poison Ivy gets a B.