Light It Up

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Light It Up

R

1999

1h 39m

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

40%

Tomatometer

48 Reviews

76%

Popcornmeter

5,000+ Ratings

The topical story of a group of high school students who form a protest when they become fed up with their school's poor conditions. After a shot is accidentally fired and a police officer is wounded, the resulting stand-off results in a media frenzy that pits the dirt-digging media against the well-intentioned students.

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Critics Consensus

Soon into the student uprising, the story starts to feel like a warmed over after-school special.

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Chris Vognar

Dallas Morning News

Painfully obvious and cliched.

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Tom Keogh

Film.com

Nelson, Whitaker and their talented, young co-stars give this film most of whatever juice it has.

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Lou Lumenick

New York Post

The dialogue is ridiculous and condescending.

Rated: 1.5/4

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

David Ehrenstein

New Times

... it's this sense of the "real" that not only keeps Light It Up lively but that marks it -- for all its visual flair -- as happily out of step with a zeitgeist enamored of naught but money and notoriety as the wildly overhyped millennium turns.

Oct 3, 2017

Full Review

Chuck O'Leary

Fantastica Daily

Rated: 1/5

Oct 9, 2005

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Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: 2/5

Aug 11, 2005

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Audience Member

terrible script for a workable premise, it's over-thinking and bad acting that sinks this Titanic full of high-voltage names..

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

"Usher" Raymond what a joke.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

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Audience Member

Very suspenseful, however, this movie was awful! It kind of makes the precedent that if you don't get what you want you can break the law (i.e. hold someone hostage as they did in the movie). This would have been much more touching if it had a better story line.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/29/23

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Audience Member

It seems like a very goodbmovie.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

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Audience Member

Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette "...isn't so much a bad movie as an unfinished movie" These are the best words to describe such movie

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/29/23

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Audience Member

Good plot, bunch of youngs stars, and emotional ending.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/20/23

Full Review

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Craig Bolotin

Director

Usher

Lester Dewitt

Forest Whitaker

Officer Dante Jackson

Rosario Dawson

Stephanie Williams

Robert Ri'chard

Zacharias 'Ziggy' Malone

Judd Nelson

Ken Knowles

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Synopsis

The topical story of a group of high school students who form a protest when they become fed up with their school's poor conditions. After a shot is accidentally fired and a police officer is wounded, the resulting stand-off results in a media frenzy that pits the dirt-digging media against the well-intentioned students.

Director: Craig Bolotin
Screenwriter: Craig Bolotin
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Production Co: Fox 2000 Pictures, Edmonds Entertainment
Rating: R (Violent Content|Language)
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 10, 1999, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 18, 2012
Box Office (Gross USA): $5.9M
Runtime: 1h 39m
Sound Mix: Surround, Dolby SR, Dolby Digital, Dolby A, Dolby Stereo
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

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