Bomb the System is a film that probably doesn't even deserve the time out of life it takes to watch it. It is a film about graffiti culture and one artist's way of getting through being the best at it- sounds original and intriguing doesn't it? In attempting to show a gritty world of urban-art obsessed youths, the movie falls flat on its face, through the asphalt, and right down to the lowest layers of hell. The movie ends up like Trainspotting, but replace heroin with graffiti, replace vibrant characters with stereotypes as flat as the walls that get painted on, and replace a good plot with a bad one. It's that simple. Where Trainspotting's characters had conversations about their lives, plans, and Sean Connery to keep the characters' lives believable and multidimensional, the dialogue in Bomb the System is absolutely wretched. It seems every conversation can be summed up in one of three ways: 

1. "I like graffiti and it is my way of life. Graffiti is good" 
2. "I am a cop and I have a completely unrealistic hate for the graf artists" 
3. "Graffiti…blah blah…graf….blah blah…art." 

Honestly, watch the movie and see if you disagree. 

The film revolves around a character whose moniker is Blest, the best graffiti artist in town, and his group of friends. Blest is concerned about the art he's creating and his family legacy, involving a dead brother who was a graffiti artist as well yet nobody really cares about his past enough because his character is too one-dimensional to have a history. The characters in this movie could not have been more ridiculously cookie-cutter: The ailing protagonist with a future, the corrupt cop, and the generic girlfriend who (BIG SURPRISE) happens to do graffiti of her own, technically, by putting up propaganda posters and the like. Every once in a while, Blest's mom comes out of the woodwork to encourage him to do something with his life, but for the most part it's just graffiti this and graffiti that. Now while it's understandable that there would be much focus on the subject in a movie like this, it's as if the script dictates pounding you in the head with the message "Graffiti is art! LOOK!" while keeping the characters as pretentious as possible. Apart from "bombing," they seem to have no lives, no history, and no depth(save the obligatory "dead family member legacy" thing that Blest has going.) The saving grace of the film are its sets. The backdrops for the characters are perfect. The graffiti used in the film is indeed, very pretty. The acting is mediocre at best and it's clear that the actors did the best they could with the laughable plot. If this review's writing style seems lackluster as far as details about the movie go, it's a result of mental fatigue, resulting from trying to find good points about Bomb the System. This review is ending early because all the important points have been made. 

Sure to please- I honestly have no idea.
Sure to disappoint- a lot of people

Bomb the System
Label:Palm Pictures
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