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Light It Up

Play trailer Poster for Light It Up R,  1999,  1h 39m,  Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist 41% 44 Reviews Tomatometer 75% 5,000+ Ratings Popcornmeter
41% Tomatometer 44 Reviews 75% 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.
Light It Up

What to Know

Critics Consensus

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

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Critics Reviews

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Rita Kempley Washington Post Jan 1, 2000
2/5
Light It Up benefits from affecting performances from a gifted cast headed by R&B heartthrob Usher Raymond. Go to Full Review
Andy Seiler USA Today Jan 1, 2000
3/4
Crackling dialogue, surprising intelligence and an emotional wallop. Go to Full Review
Mick LaSalle San Francisco Chronicle Jan 1, 2000
3/4
A deluge of movies is set to be released in the next three weeks. One that should not be lost in the flood is Light It Up. Go to Full Review
David Ehrenstein New Times Oct 3, 2017
... 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. Go to Full Review
Chuck O'Leary Fantastica Daily Oct 9, 2005
1/5
Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Aug 11, 2005
2/5
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Light It Up

My Rating

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Cast & Crew

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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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Light It Up

Light It Up (1999) (Left to right) ROBERT RI'CHARD, ROSARIO DAWSON, CLIFTON COLLINS JR., SARA GILBERT and USHER RAYMOND get their message out to the world. Police officer FOREST WHITAKER confronts USHER RAYMOND in the school hallway as ROBERT RI'CHARD looks on. VANESSA L. WILLIAMS plays a determined hostage negotiator. (Left to right) USHER RAYMOND, ROBERT RI'CHARD, and ROSARIO DAWSON observe the deplorable conditions in their battered inner-city school. View more photos

Movie Info

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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