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Bomb the System

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Bomb the System (2005)

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33 %
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Reviews Counted: 21

Fresh: 7

Rotten:14

Average Rating: 5.1/10

Consensus: Given the movie's premise, one would assume it's gritty and street-smart, but in reality it's a slave to stale cliches and formula.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] pervasive language, drug use, some violence, and sexuality/nudity

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:May 27, 2005 Limited

Synopsis: "The average New Yorker sees upwards of 50 pieces of graffiti a day. But they never stop to think about the stories behind those pieces… this is one of those stories." Bomb the System is the first... "The average New Yorker sees upwards of 50 pieces of graffiti a day. But they never stop to think about the stories behind those pieces… this is one of those stories." Bomb the System is the first feature in over 20 years to delve into the world of graffiti art. The film, shot entirely on the streets of New York City, is the feature debut of 23-year-old writer/director Adam Bhala Lough. Mark Webber (People I Know, Storytelling, The Laramie Project) leads a talented young ensemble cast as Blest, a 19-year-old graffiti writer fresh out of high school with no ambition for the future. New York City is Blest's playground. He spends his days stealing spray paint from local hardware stores - and his nights getting high and "bombing" the streets with his graffiti crew. He is the most wanted writer on the NYPD Vandal Squad's hit list, and at the same time, is attracting attention from the local gallery scene. But things quickly turn ugly when 15-year-old Lune, the youngest member of Blest's crew, is arrested and brutalized by the NYPD. The crew retaliates by waging an all out "graffiti war" against the city: a war that ends up costing more than one life in the end. Bomb the System is a true New York story - a cinematic poem dedicated to the art of graffiti, and to the city where it all began more than two decades ago. © -- Drops Entertainment [More]

Starring: Mark Webber, Gano Grills, Jaclyn DeSantis, Bonz Malone

Starring: Mark Webber, Gano Grills, Jaclyn DeSantis, Bonz Malone, Jade Yorker, Al Sapienza, Lee Quinones, Kumar Pallana, Joey Dedio, Stephen Buchanan

Director: Adam Bhala Lough

Director: Adam Bhala Lough
Screenwriter: Adam Bhala Lough
Producer: Ben Rekhi, Sol Tryon
Composer: El-P
Studio: Palm Pictures

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Reviews for Bomb the System

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N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
08/16/07
Dave Calhoun
Time Out New York

The story is so loosely developed and devoid of suspense, it barely seems to exist.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
03/01/07
Eric Monder
Film Journal International
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Time Out
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
09/26/05
AV Club

I came out of this wishing the paint can crowd would settle for tattoos.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
08/26/05
Jules Brenner
Filmcritic.com

Visually dazzling and dramatically trite -- it's virtuoso piffle.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
08/26/05
Ty Burr
Boston Globe
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Thoroughly fails to convince that its handful of New York characters known as 'bombers,' graffiti mongers futilely yearning for immortality via nightly despoiling of public and private property, is of any tragic interest.

Full Review Source: Seattle Times | comment Comment
06/24/05
Tom Keogh
Seattle Times

The film half-heartedly paints their actions as rebel-chic heroism even when it has all the integrity of tomcats spraying outside their yards...

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
06/23/05
Sean Axmaker
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Notable mainly for its hallucinatory, tripped visuals, which go a long way toward compensating for a less-than-riveting narrative.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
06/17/05
Frank Scheck
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A richly textured drama with an angry poetic edge that gets inside the obsessive subculture of New York graffiti artists.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
06/02/05
David Rooney
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A didactic ode to a lifestyle that makes little sense, no matter the darkly romantic rebel-with-a-cause ideas associated with what is essentially an act of vandalism.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
06/02/05
Tim Cogshell
Boxoffice Magazine

In the end it's all seductive surface and no substance, but Lough has a bold eye and a vivid sense of uniquely urban beauty.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
05/27/05
Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Preachy and single-minded, populated by a world of sympathetic heroes and hissable villains.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
05/27/05
Elizabeth Weitzman
New York Daily News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A mild, slow-moving drama that belatedly tries to argue that graffiti writers are political artists, not an urban blight.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
05/27/05
Lou Lumenick
New York Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A flashy but numbingly hollow compendium of Trainspotting-inspired visual gimmicks, Lough's tale of New York City 'bombers' is formulaic in the extreme.

Full Review Source: Reel.com | comment Comment
05/27/05
Timothy Knight
Reel.com

This fictional take on the subject mostly avoids bombing in the bad-movie sense, but could stand to calm down a little.

Full Review Source: E! Online | comment Comment
05/27/05
E! Online

Lough's impressive, if uneven, debut feature captures the adrenaline rush and contradictory nature of the simultaneously creative and criminal activity but stumbles in its attempt to justify it as an art form.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
05/26/05
Kevin Crust
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Adam Bhala Lough's hot little melodrama rhapsodizes the lives of contemporary graffiti artists.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
05/26/05
Stephen Holden
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Lough references Basquiat, without naming him, but in the end can't quite hijack the late artist's cred for his own hit-and-run movie.

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
05/26/05
John Anderson
Newsday
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Well acted and ably directed, if not very probing about its subject of underclass youth.

Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | comment Comment
05/26/05
David Sterritt
Christian Science Monitor
 
 
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