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Verdict: They should have burned the script.

Details: Starring Usher Raymond, Vanessa L. Williams and Forest Whitaker. Directed by Craig Bolotin. Rated R for profanity, violent content. 1 hour, 43 minutes.

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Review: In the teen drama "Light It Up," some students, led by recording star Usher Raymond in his first lead role, take over a horribly overcrowded New York high school.

Why? Because their education is a terrible thing being wasted.

There aren't enough textbooks or classroom seats to go around. Dripping water is everywhere; big puddles fill the hallways. Broken windows allow freezing air to whip in.

Maybe they could burn the books to keep warm? "There's not enough," one disillusioned kid mutters. The administration denies the student council's motion to hold a career day. And when one kid gets pushed around by overzealous adults, he shouts, "I'm tired of being wrong before I open my mouth."

Aren't we all.

"Light It Up," a heavy-handed, forgettable piece of classroom claptrap from writer/director Craig Bolotin ("Black Rain," "Straight Talk"), is not nearly as violent and explosive as the film's trailer suggests. But it is about as painfully earnest a movie as you're likely to see.

The kids just want to be heard. Most of the adults are so consumed by rules, stress and fear they just don't listen. It's as if the school hallways constantly echo James Dean's scream: "You're tearing me apart!"

It all snaps one day in a series of misunderstandings, and one sad young fellow ends up pointing a gun at the new school cop.

For the next hour and 30 minutes, six students take the cop hostage, seize the school and make their demands. Fix the windows! Get more books! And, once a month, we can give the teachers a test, yeah!

But "Light It Up" sounds the same tired notes over and over. We hurt. They're mean. They need to pay for what they're doing to us. Let's order pizza.

Every moment of painful injustice is rendered in slo-mo. Every cry of anguish ever-so-slowly erupts from some kid's wrenched guts. Yet for a school with nothing but problems, it's amazing how so many of the fluorescent lights work. And how, holed up in the school library, the small band of student militants take time to place desktop lights in positions that present a more artful glow.

At least the actors try to make a go of it — especially Forest Whitaker ("The Crying Game") as the cop hostage, Usher as the student ringleader and Sara Gilbert ("Roseanne") as a disenchanted high schooler.

They're the only fire "Light It Up" has.

— Bob Longino, Cox News Service

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