Bomb the System

Much like the recent "Lords of Dogtown", "Bomb the System" is a film spotlighting a semi- underground subculture, in this case graffiti writers, wrapped around a narrative plot. Somewhat similar to "Kids", the story follows a young writer, "BLEST" as he tags, hangs out with friends, smokes pot, parties and tags again. This would all work fine as a minimalist, loosely structured, spectator piece, but instead, the filmmakers throw the dramatic storyline arc into the mix about a crooked cop and his ex-writer partner, which makes the whole thing seem artificial. Besides this major flaw, the film also suffers from over-acting, un-motivated hyper editing techniques and un-authentic slang dialouge. As an artist myself, I would suggest to neophytes looking to learn more about the culture to explore documentaries and check out websites. It's too bad that this film doesn't work, because the characters, like the filmmakers, seem to have a spiritual passion for the art of graffiti. The character Alex says in one scene something along the lines of while graffiti is aesthetically pleasing and stylistic, it the end, it stands for nothing. This particular line echos my thoughts and feelings about the film itself.

I just finished the film, and boy, it was not good at all. I've never seen any other movie about graffiti, and yet everything in this one seems clichéd. Many of the characters are not believable, for example the central villain is a "bad cop" who is just laughable in the way he is portrayed as pure evil. And it just DRAGS for about twenty minutes two thirds of the way through (and the movie is only 90 minutes long!). I almost went to see this last fall at the local film festival, but the schedule didn't work out, and I'm glad I saved my $10. If this was a film made by a group of high school students I would applaud them, but for a professional film this is just a pretentious waste of time.

Just finished watching the movie, and I gotta say...It was fresh. Had me from start to finish. I was immersed. I felt as though I was running through Brooklyn with the characters. As soon as I finished it I had an overwhelming urge to go to throwup some work.

"Bomb the system" had great acting, really good filming, decent script, and some nice "tags"(they don't dwell on any of the pieces long enough unfortunately). My only complaints were: the girlfriend, she was too stereo typical, and anti-captilist. Also the lack of an in depth look at actual street art(graffiti). All in all the I loved this movie, and would recommend it to anyone, whether they are into graff or not.

8 out of 10 stars

Watch it now!

The dedicated practitioners of graffiti art in New York City get dramatically profiled in a film shot 'guerilla' style late at night in order to simulate the 'danger' involved with the only art form that's against the law.

Stereotypical 'bad' cops continually stalk the intrepid band of 'taggers' while 'Blest' (Mark Webber) truly is the most artistically blessed member of the gang as he readies an art exhibit of his best work.

However, this film doesn't really become interesting until Blest becomes involved with 'Alexandra' (Jaclyn DeSantis), a political activist who anonymously paints the words 'Bomb the System' all over the city sidewalks using a cleverly modified shopping bag that has a stencil cut into the bottom.

As the police become more and more of a factor the dangers that Blest faces by hanging with his friends causes him to make some hard decisions. Worth watching for some great night shots of New York City and an amazing sequence on the top of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Check it out!

Ignore what you've heard bad about this movie. Some writers might be upset that the movie doesn't go too into detail about actually putting graffiti up or saying that it's using incorrect terminology but those people completely missed what's good about the movie.

First off, the actual presentation, filming, camera movement, effects, etc. are all extremely artistic and original. The entire movie just makes you feel empathetic for the characters. The atmosphere, the scenery, all of it. Interludes between scenes of the main character always running, just running away.

The music is good too. It's all done by El-P, for anyone familiar with Def-Jux.

The whole movie though, it's just amazing... So many people overlooked this. Everything is just done so brutally realistic, how the way characters react and think, how life really can just be ****ed up. It's a powerful movie and the ending is the best part. (be warned though... it's sad...)