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Struck by Lightning

Play trailer Poster for Struck by Lightning Released Jan 11, 2013 1h 24m Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
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33% Tomatometer 33 Reviews 52% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
A teen (Chris Colfer), fated to meet an electrifying end, coerces his classmates into writing for a literary magazine he started to ensure admittance to his dream college.
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Struck by Lightning

Critics Reviews

View All (33) Critics Reviews
Sara Stewart New York Post Ultimately, it all portends a much brighter future for Colfer than for Carson. Rated: 2/4 Jan 11, 2013 Full Review Mark Olsen Los Angeles Times If only "Struck by Lightning" had a sharper, stronger perspective, it might have made more of its conceit. Rated: 2/5 Jan 10, 2013 Full Review Stephen Holden New York Times Except for Ms. Janney's monstrous mother and an Alzheimer's-afflicted grandmother (Polly Bergen), "Struck by Lightning" gives its characters no dimension. Rated: 2/5 Jan 10, 2013 Full Review Debbie Lynn Elias Behind The Lens Brian Dannelly's direction keeps the film clean, simple. A softness to the visual tone of the film both in lighting and use of color serves as a nice balance to the harsh realities and high school! Nov 27, 2019 Full Review Mattie Lucas From the Front Row A completely winning film, the kind of smartly written indie comedy that so rarely separates itself from the self consciously quirky pack. Rated: 3/4 Aug 6, 2019 Full Review Stephen Saito Moveable Fest Carson complains there's "nothing to do in Clover between Jamba Juices and cow tipping," but those watching it shouldn't feel the same way. Dec 17, 2018 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (332) audience reviews
Darcey I honestly am in love with this movie.I find the story so unique compared to every other coming of age high school story and the characters say things that people their age would actually say instead of the usual made-up things that the writers put instead.I would definitely recommend this for almost anyone and I really do not understand why it is rated so low.A very fun watch. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 09/20/23 Full Review biggest BVB f I feel very ambivalent about this movie. At first glance it seemed like a typical high school movie with no content except for sex, drugs, gossip, football teams and cheerleaders with no deeper meaning. Surprisingly, the movie had more to offer than that. The problem was just the execution. The combination of superficial humor with sensitive, serious topics like burnout, depression, and death was more than out of place in my opinion. Carson's problems were not dealt with deeply enough, nor were those of his classmates. His anticipated ending further made the film less interesting and his death was treated with too much levity. I find Carson to be a very unlikeable character that I can't relate to in any way. However, there were occasional good jokes that made me smile, which made the film tolerable to watch on the whole. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Amelie S The title seems appealing and exciting for the first time, which makes the film seem more interesting. It turned out to be a high school movie which cliched characters like you've seen many times before. The fact that the film begins with the tragic death of Carson Phillips (spoiler) made it a little more exciting. The plot was a bit boring but implemented quite funny, but it was clear that it should convey a potency. I would recommend the film for teenagers between the ages 10 and 14. Overall I think the film ist okay to watch. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Channahbis l This movie is so boring, it has no storyline. It is basically about a selfish high school student who has no friends (for a reason). His blackmailing is accepted by everyone and he doesn´t have to deal with any kind of consequenzes. The only person in this film that I like and that has my whole heart is Carson´s grandmum. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 03/27/23 Full Review MonchenGladbachFan69 6 I didn´t like that movie at ALL. It was boring to watch and the "plot" wasn´t really a plot, since it was already shown in the beginning that he dies. The protagonist was very unlikeable and actually not as smart as he seemed to be. Some scenes were pretty cliché and cringe. I´d reccommend anyone who´s willing to wach this movie to rather watch a Mönchen Gladbach match. Way more entertaining than this piece of cr*p. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member While not every joke landed, I felt overall the humour was pretty great, much better than what others make it out to be. Carson has been dismissed as too snide or arrogant but I think that angst was what made the character so interesting to watch. He went through a lot as the movie passed and I think handled it better than most teenagers would have been able to. A star studded supporting cast carried the movie though I was hoping for a bit more development, I guess it mirrored reality though, often times bad people don't change on a dime. I thought the portrayal of the life of a high schooler was a breath of fresh air amid so many samesy high school movies. Overall, a great film which tells the triumphs but often the downfalls of high school in a funny and accurate way you don't often see on screen. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Struck by Lightning

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Movie Info

Synopsis A teen (Chris Colfer), fated to meet an electrifying end, coerces his classmates into writing for a literary magazine he started to ensure admittance to his dream college.
Director
Brian Dannelly
Producer
David Permut, Roberto Aguire, Mia Chang
Screenwriter
Chris Colfer
Distributor
Tribeca Film
Production Co
Inphenate, Permut Presentations, Evil Media Empire, Camellia Entertainment
Genre
Comedy
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Jan 11, 2013, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Nov 18, 2013
Runtime
1h 24m
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