Nice effects though.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

I was watching a movie the other day and saw the preview for "Light It Up", and i must say i had my reserves about seeing it. I am the type of person who will see anything at least once to give it a shot. I must say I am very pleased I watched this movie.The movie revolves around six students from Lincoln High School in Queens New York trying to make a change in their school. Each at school for different reasons.Usher Raymond, in his first leading role, played the role extremely well. He took you on a roller-coaster ride, one minute as a sensitive confused young man, the next a young men with a vendetta against those who have done him wrong. He tries to balance the responsibility that he brought upon himself and deciding what is the best for him and his peers.Forest Whitaker plays the officer the young students of Lincoln high take hostage and plays the role pretty well. Rosario Dawson plays the lead female and is a believable good girl. Fredro Starr plays his usual gangster role as in Save the Last Dance. He is great in those roles because he can put that fear in you that he is crazy and will do anything. Robert Ri'chard makes his big screen debut as Ziggy. he is the quiet kid always trying to make peace and avoid controversy.If your looking for a movie that will get you thinking about how things are and should be changed this is a movie for you. There is plenty of drama in this movie. There is comedy, a little romance, and a real message in this movie and i suggest if you have not seen it go out and rent it.

I was a bit puzzled over this film. Yahoo gave it one and a half stars, a rating usually for really bad films (but not really bad films with budgets over $30 million). This was not a bad film, far from it. The first ten minutes really set the realism of certain public schools in New York, with middle management a slave to their superiors' concerns over their public image at the expense of the students. I looked at the Rotten Tomatoes list of reviews some of which acknowledged good aspects of this film. But some said it was formulaic. Well...yes? What will happen 100% of the time if a NYPD officer is shot and those responsible barricade themselves in? I suppose aliens were supposed to come down and rescue them? What mattered in this film was that it told the story from the students point of view and it told, with realism, some of the hard truths about bureaucracies who care about their image in sound bites and time of TV news but not really about the deficiencies of their system. It is enough to say that you felt with the students and it was told in their language. Apologies to the critics who felt a quick Caliban monologue should have been inserted. The ending was somewhat Breakfast Clubbish and, I agree, fantasy but all in all a truthful realistic film

This film is a stirring tale of the events of a day at an inner city public school. Where a few of the students end up holding a police officer hostage. This film really shows the way students in the innner city can be pigeon holed into a horrible situation.

This is a really great movie, because sometimes we all just want to take a stand, no matter what we have to do,legal or illegal. It even blends a little bit of comedy with the drama. It is definitely worth watching.***1/2 out of ***** stars