Bomb the System | 
| Director: Adam Bhala Lough
Actors: Jade Yorker, Jaclyn Desantis, Mark Webber, Gano Grills, Joey Dedio
Studio: Palm Pictures / Umvd
Category: DVD
List Price: $24.99
Buy New: $8.00
You Save: $16.99 (68%)
New (22) Used (11) from $8.00
Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 43634
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Hindi (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 91 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: PALMDV3117
UPC: 660200311728
EAN: 0660200311728
ASIN: B000AMJG6W
Theatrical Release Date: 2003
Release Date: October 11, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: new sealed
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Product Description
In the first feature length film in over 20 years to focus on graffiti Anthony Blest (Mark Webber) is one of the most talented and notorious artists in New York City. Despite the tragic loss of his older brother during a nightly bombing foray with a graffiti crew Anthony has the same insatiable addiction. With the other members of his crew Justin (Gano Grills) and Kevin (Jade Yorker) Anthony parties shoplifts spray-paint and tags virgin walls with his signature 'Blest.' He does his best to avoid run-ins with the cops and hostile rival crews but he can t avoid the pressure from his mother to attend college and from his girlfriend to leave New York with her. After a physical threat from the cops Blest s crew declares an all out war on the city and intensifies their bombing excursions. When the inevitable confrontation happens a tragedy results that pushes Anthony to make a decision that has darker consequences.System Requirements: Running Time 93 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 660200311728 Manufacturer No: PALMDV3117
Amazon.com
To "bomb" is b-boy slang meaning to create graffiti. In Adam Bhala Lough's striking debut, the "system" is the NYPD's Vandal Squad. Anthony (Mark Webber, Broken Flowers) is a 19-year-old bomber--tag name "Blest"--with plans to go legit, like Keith Haring or Jean-Michel Basquiat back in the "wild style" 1980s, who went from New York's mean streets to its most exclusive galleries. Alas, both met tragic ends. Blest, too, appears to be on the fast track to artistic success...or personal decline. He may have skills, but he's also a thief and a drug user. When he meets the politically minded Alex (Jaclyn DeSantis), it seems he's finally found the angel he needs to guide him in the right direction. After all, he already lost his brother to the graffiti game. Alex wants him to run away with her, but that's easier said than done. Bomb the System is the kind of ambitious first feature where, despite the best of intentions, style trumps substance every time. That said, the look NYU grad Lough achieves--an impressionistic world of black skies, glowing lights, and saturated colors--helps his rather obvious message that crime doesn't pay go down with ease. The tragic tale gets a welcome boost from El-P's ominous instrumental score along with moody tracks from Schoolly D, Madvillain, and Radiohead. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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| Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
 More dough December 9, 2006
Richard Aguas
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
This movie was okay. The scenes are pretty lifeless and I guess artists could go through this. I feel this ones solely for cash. It's more of a lewd romp for cash and fame. But this really is how some sh$t could go
down. It's like that movie Kids, but Kids had more made up problems that
actually exist. Still a solid movie in terms of cinema.
 This movie is a Bomb July 30, 2006
Simonides (long island, ny)
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
Graffiti is fascinating stuff. The people who do it are artists. This movie, however, is garbage. Over-acted and force-fed with idiotic slang that is already dated, "Bomb the System" takes a fascinating subject and portrays it in a way that trivializes all the motivations and purpose behind graffiti. I can only assume that the stellar reviews this movie has gotten so far are from people with no first hand experience of the subject, the same way that "You Got Served" was praised for its accurate portrayal of the breakdancing subculture by an overweight housewife in Muncie, Indiana.
Avoid this steaming pile at all costs.
 Fun and Pretty January 20, 2006
DES
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed the act of sitting down and watching this film.If you have a big enough screen (or sit close enough to the television) this film will take you on a fun visual and thematic roller coaster right of emotions and stimuli. I don't know much about graffitti, but the main character and the visuals really drew me in. The story-line wasn't shakespearian in complexity and originality, but it did what it was supposed to do (and I think bringing in aliens or a vast govermental conspiracy would have been a bit distracting anyway).
Even if you aren't into the film at all, if you find the main actor as attractive as I do you might just as well go out and buy the film anyway:p
 Cool Visuals (Photography and Graffiti Alike) and Very Melodramatic Story January 14, 2006
Tsuyoshi
3 out of 9 found this review helpful
I went to `Bomb the System' thinking it might tell us something about the lie of the graphic artists in New York City. I knew it is not documentary, and the film stars Mark Webber has worked with two of the today's most eminent New Yorkers in the film industry (Woody Allen's `Hollywood Ending' and Al Pacino's `People I Know') And it has been more than 20 years since we saw `Wild Style,' and it is time that we should see another work using graphic art as its theme, set in more contemporary situation.
But I was disappointed. OK, Mark Webber is good as the protagonist `Blest' talented artist who has not yet decided his future plan -- to go to college or to keep doing what he is doing with his friends and fellow artists. Blest tells us some rules about doing (illegal) murals, but the film actually showed me the inner world of the artists much less than I had expected.
The reason is simple. The story by first-time writer/director Adam Bhala Louch is so melodramatic and cliche-ridden that you can spot instantly where Louch borrowed things from somewhere else, like numerous police dramas made for TV. The love story is so feeble and the female characters (mother and girlfriend of Blest) are caricatures. And look at the white cop from vandal squad of NYPD, who keeps watching Blest. He is the worst example, a sociopath wearing a badge, ready to blackmail the prostitutes, and bully the weak. Even with the appearance of the real-life artist Lee Quinones as himself cannot save the film from the stale formulaic script.
I must say one thing about the visuals of the film. The camera captures the darkly-lit streets and the blocks surrounded by demolished buildings very well, and though it is regrettable that he overuses the now corny MTV styles, it should be admitted that Adam Bhala Louch stops that when the characters are supposed to say something serious about their way of living.
Still I cannot help thinking that this is a missed opportunity. `Bomb the System' could have been a more thrilling and insightful film about art and life than what it is now. For the real-life artists, Giuliani's efforts to eradicate graffiti must have had more significant meaning for their career as artist. Ignoring more immediate and complex issues surrounding the graphic artists, however, the film relies on the not-so-original idea that crime doesn't pay. Maybe so, but just because doing graffiti is a crime doesn't mean that the film needs a handgun and a violent cop.
Amazing Film December 28, 2005
Freeze (Seattle)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Wow,,, after watching this movie I was really impressed. The filming is great and the story line is fantastic. The plot isn't all that realistic but the setting is. The soundtrack is a good fit for the film and the artwork is good. People interested in the underground artwork community will love this as well as serious writers.
Overall I was extremely satisfied with this film and would recommend it too most.
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