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67Struck by Lightning sticks to generic character sketches of high school student types - the jock, the goth, the cheerleader, etc. - and gives Carson the best lines. In between, some charming, buzzy talents pitch in on this short little lark.
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60While the good outweigh the bad, it's a close race. But what is good, particularly a heartbreaking performance by Allison Janney, is really good, enough so that Colfer emerges as a talent worth watching on the page, not just on the screen.
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58Lightning is a funny, fast-moving movie, packed with barbed one-liners, goofy hyperbole, and all the oversized exasperation of teen angst. But it's too acid, particularly where Colfer is concerned.
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50There's also a refreshing lack of wrapping everything up in a neat, happy bow at the end.
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Jan 10, 201350Genial and heartfelt but essentially toothless, lacking in either snark or spark.
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50In his screenwriting debut, Glee's gifted Chris Colfer, 22, proves he can lace a line with sass and soul. The downside of Struck by Lightning, besides the fact that Colfer's character, Carson Phillips, is struck dead in the first scene, is that Colfer hands himself all the best lines.
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Jan 8, 201350Struck by Lightning means well, but its gentle dissection of high school cliques brings nothing new to the genre, except the fact that being out isn't the problem for the hero, Carson (Colfer).
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Feb 27, 201342Struck by Lightning may appeal to fans of Colfer’s work on “Glee,” but as a film it’s utterly lacking in scope, depth or meaning beyond an immediate chuckle or two.
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40Except for Ms. Janney's monstrous mother and an Alzheimer's-afflicted grandmother (Polly Bergen), Struck by Lightning gives its characters no dimension.
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40One can't blame Colfer for wanting to expand his range, but he's created a character who is neither hero nor villain, in a black comedy that is neither dark nor funny enough.
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20Then observe as all but the hard-core Colferphiles slink out embarrassed, feeling as confused and discombobulated as if they too just took an electric bolt to the brain.
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Jan 8, 20130A class-five pity party so unbearably condescending and unconvincing that it might just make you run out and buy an "I'm With Mitt" t-shirt, it makes an inadvertent but hugely compelling pro-bullying argument.