Bomb the System (2003)
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32% of critics liked it
(22 reviews) -
81% of users liked it
(1,284 ratings)
A young man with a troubled past expresses himself through street art in this independent drama. Anthony (Mark Webber) is a 19-year-old kid living in New York City who was introduced to "bombing" -- graffiti art sprayed on public walls when the cops aren't looking -- by his older… More A young man with a troubled past expresses himself through street art in this independent drama. Anthony (Mark Webber) is a 19-year-old kid living in New York City who was introduced to "bombing" -- graffiti art sprayed on public walls when the cops aren't looking -- by his older brother. When his brother died, Anthony took up bombing himself, and with the help of his pals Justin (Gano Grills) and Kevin (Jade Yorker) he does murals under the street name "Blest," while struggling to avoid the NYPD's anti-graffiti Vandal Squad. Anthony's mother (Donna Mitchell) is after him to quit bombing and attend art school, while his girlfriend (Jaclyn DeSantis) wants to get out of New York, and would like him to join her. However, it takes a run-in with Bobby Cox (Al Sapienza), a Vandal Squad cop with a hair-trigger temper, to push Anthony into making a decision about his life. Bomb the System was the first feature film from writer and director Adam Bhala Lough, who was only 23 years old when the picture was made. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Directed By
- Adam Bhala Lough
- Written By
- Adam Bhala Lough
- Genres
- Drama, Action & Adventure
R,
- In Theaters
- May 7, 2003 Wide
- Studio
- Palm Pictures
Critic Reviews
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Ty Burr, Boston Globe
Visually dazzling and dramatically trite -- it's virtuoso piffle.
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Tom Keogh, Seattle Times
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.
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Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
Notable mainly for its hallucinatory, tripped visuals, which go a long way toward compensating for a less-than-riveting narrative.
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David Rooney, Variety
A richly textured drama with an angry poetic edge that gets inside the obsessive subculture of New York graffiti artists.
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Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News
Preachy and single-minded, populated by a world of sympathetic heroes and hissable villains.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
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Cast
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Mark Webber
as Anthony "Blest" Campo
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Gano Grills
as Justin "Buk 50" Broady
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Jade Yorker
as Kevin "Lune" Broady
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Jaclyn DeSantis
as Alexandra
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Joey Dedio
as Hazer
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Stephen Buchanan
as Noble
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Al Sapienza
as Bobby Cox
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Bonz Malone
as Nole Shorts
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Donna Mitchell
as Diane Campbell
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Kumar Pallana
as Kumar Baba
