Product Details

• Actors: Usher Raymond, Forest Whitaker, Rosario Dawson, Robert Ri'chard, Judd Nelson
• Directors: Craig Bolotin
• Writers: Craig Bolotin
• Producers: Bridget D. Davis, David A. Starke, Helena Echegoyen, Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds, Tracey E. Edmonds
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: June 13, 2000
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305868913
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #325,632 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

It makes sorrowful sense that a 1999 revision (albeit unofficial) of John Hughes's The Breakfast Club would involve guns on a high school campus, a children's crusade fought on the Internet, a handful of adolescents imprisoned by their fight-or-flight reputations in the inner city, and... oh yes, Judd Nelson. Nelson, who played the heavy-metal lout from a violent home in The Breakfast Club, shows up here as a hip history instructor named Knowles, so committed to his students in deplorable classroom circumstances that he leads them to friendlier digs off-campus and is suspended for his efforts.

Already outraged about an earlier run-in with a high-strung security guard (Forest Whitaker)--who later pulls a gun on the most harmless kid at school--young Lester (Usher Raymond) wounds the guard, leads a takeover of the building, and oversees authorship of an online manifesto explaining his actions. While supporters, detractors, and cops jockey for position outside, Lester and his fellow rebels, a perfect mix of teenage archetypes who normally would have little to do with one another, unburden their souls. The Hughes Effect kicks in as Lester reveals that his decent father was killed by racist cops, that a Sal Mineo-type (Robert Richards) is beaten at home, that a pregnant girl (Sara Gilbert) wasn't even kissed by the creep she slept with, etc. Writer-director Craig Bolotin, unlike Hughes, can't persuade us to overlook the convenient symmetries and complementary struggles among his outcasts. Everything begins to feel forced after awhile, heading toward a prefabricated finish, though Bolotin's good intentions are not without some emotional impact. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best movies ever!, June 14, 2000

By 

Steven White (nowheresville TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Light It Up [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Wow,I am in awe of this genious movie.I guess it's kinda controversial(they take a cop hostage and lock themselves in the school to prove their points) but that only adds to the brilliance of it.I thought Usher was just a talentless teen idol but this movie changed my mind about him.He really is amazing as an actor.It was also a nice suprise to see my favorite actress Sara Gilbert appear in it.As always,she is superb.This movie speaks a lot of truth.Its also full of hope.Hope that maybe someday people will understand that age is just a number.Maybe they'll realize that racism gets us nowhere.THAT'S what this movie is all about.As one of the characters said,"All we want is respect!".Thats what its all about.Standing up for your beliefs.I highly reccomend this fabulous movie to anyone.It changed my life.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A view from the other side, September 18, 2000

By 

Flit Asuno (Western hemisphere) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Light it Up (DVD)

Too many times in recent years we have tuned into the news only to hear of another school shooting. In this movie, we see it from the point of view of the students involved. This brilliant film from Craig Bolotin, the director of Miami Vice, shows us how good people can suddenly find themselves involved in bad situations. Because of a self-serving principal and a cop with too much attitude, six high school students take the cop hostage and ask for better school furniture, textbooks, etc., as their demands. As the movie plays on, we see that each character is very deep and complex -- each with her or his demons, each with redeeming qualities. The beginning of the film, until the time that the cop is taken hostage, seems contrived and there are several inconsistencies with the film, but overall, it is definitely worth watching.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 187 fans, it's time to Light it Up, October 9, 2001

By 

Daniel Lukoff (Bend, Oregon United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Light It Up [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Light it Up brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "Ride or die", as Lester, a student at Lincoln High in New York, takes the school, along with five of his classmates; some friends, some merely acquaintances. Regardless of their relationships at the beginning of this whole ordeal, they all had one thing in common; they had been branded as gangbangers and deadbeats, before they even had the chance to be themselves.

The sparks begin to fly when Mr. Knowles (Judd Nelson), a highly-respected, well-liked teacher is fired, after becoming a hero.

Driven by the demons that plague his mind, and the memory of his father, Lester Dewitt (Usher Raymond) was only trying to protect his friend Ziggy (Robert Ri'chard), a young artist, from a security officer named Jackson (Forest Whitaker), when the officer loses his gun in the struggle. The gun goes off, and leaves Jackson with a wound to the leg.

And so it begins. Lester grabs up the gun, and rounds up the five other students who witnessed the struggle, and who knew what really took place, taking Jackson hostage.

Hours will pass... the city will watch... the students will be heard, because this is their time.

Light it Up is sure to grab your gut and twist it with an unrelentness fist. You will become the characters portrayed, and you will live those hours that killed the demons in their minds, as you sit back in the comfort of your own, cozy living room, and Light it Up.