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Bad Boys Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 16 Reviews)

Boys In Da Hood
A great movie with a very young Sean Penn. I totally recommend this movie if you like urban social dramas. It is great story about rivals who meet at the end to settle there differences.

...a solid prison drama
Bad Boys is a solid prison drama starring Sean Penn (State Of Grace, Fast Times At Ridgemont High), Reni Santoni (Cobra), Ally Sheedy (The Breakfast Club), Alan Ruck (Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Young Guns II), and Esai Morales (La Bamba).

Penn plays Mick O'Brien, a menacing delinquent, who after a failed heist runs over a boy with his car, gets arrested and confined to a juvenile prison where he must deal with a couple of bullies. In the meantime, the brother of the boy he ran over and killed, a hispanic delinquent named Paco Moreno, played by Morales, is not satisfied enough; he wants to kill Mick, so he gets himself arrested, and follows him to the same prison for a bloody and relentless showdown.

Bad Boys was released in 1983, only one year after Sean Penn's star making role as pothead Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times At Ridgemont High. Boys proved that Penn was more than just an onscreen goofball, but an actor who can take on characters of different dimensions.

Recommended

A

"Nothin's Gonna Happen To Me....."
I love Sean Penn as an actor. He's so versatile and can play just about any part. I had never even heard of "Bad Boys" before. I was simply looking through DVD's at Hastings one day and the title caught my eye. Films concerning criminals and misfits have always been a thing of curiosity for me and a film of this kind starring Sean Penn made it seem even better. I bought the film and have loved watching it since.

Sean Penn plays Mick O'Brien, a mop-haired, street thug from Chicago who loves the thrill of juvenile crime from stealing purses to using firearms. His number one enemy is a Hispanic juvenile drug dealer named Paco (played by Esai Morales) who also has eyes for Mick's beautiful girlfriend J.C. (played by the lovely Ally Sheedy). After O'Brien and Paco are involved in a hideous shootout that has Mick going on a high speed police chase and leaves Paco's kid brother dead, Mick is sentenced to Rainford Correctional Facility to serve time for his crimes.

Suddenly, O'Brien is plunged into a world of his own kind: rapists, murderers and robbers. They spit on you and taunt you. They whistle at you and try to extort you. But that is the least of Mick's problems. He must deal with the head "bad boys" of the clan. Tweetie is a tough African American with angry intimidating eyes who makes the younger newcomers his love interests and bullies O'Brien during his cleaning, (a.k.a s***t house patrol) time. Tweetie's accomplice is a large, blonde, muscled guy named Viking who loves torturing O'Brien during lunch or dinnertime and sneering in his face. Together, Tweetie and Viking keep everyone in line by shoving them around and flashing tough stares at them.

My favorite character in the film is Horowitz (portrayed excellently by Eric Gurry), the small, skinny Jewish kid who spends most of his time with his nose in a book or fixing radios. But Horowitz is just as dangerous as he is intelligent and he is proof that you can be tough in other ways besides being big, rough and muscular. Horowitz looks as ordinary as they come, but don't be fooled by that. Horowitz is Mick O'Brien's cellmate who eventually becomes his accomplice after Mick raises hell with Tweetie and Viking and is dubbed "The New Barn Boss." With Horowitz's help, Mick gains a better idea of the pecking order and different attitudes around the institution and can prepare himself for what lies ahead. Horowitz also tosses in a few surprises such as cleverly executing a "corrosive" way for Mick to escape from the institution to see J.C. and making a radio explode in a much needed damaging way. Even with his small stature, Horowitz is feisty and stands up to the bigger "bad boys" when the time is right. I guess I get a kick out of Horowitz because he's so deceiving. And I admire his courage to fight despite his size. I also like his laid-back, matter-of-fact personality. Just listen to the story he tells Mick about the bowling alley he blew up.

But the worst is yet to come for Mick. After beating and raping J.C., Paco is transported to Rainford, where he is united again with his beloved enemy, Mick. Everyone has heard of the beef between the two and they can all smell blood almost as soon as Paco steps foot in the institution. The hatred is as raw as they come; Paco out to get Mick for killing his kid brother and Mick out to get Paco for what he did to his girlfriend. Now everything can become a weapon and Paco is lifting weights with determination. On the night of the fight, crafty Paco goes to great lengths to make sure that there will be no authority figures in the way and he and Mick have a nasty and bloody showdown. Throughout the film, Mick is never one to show much emotion, but at the last part of the film, we actually see some. The only other time you see emotion on Mick's face is when he sees J.C. after her attack.

Everything about "Bad Boys" is awesome. The casting is wonderful; a truly talented bunch of young men who exhibit the raw toughness that comes with being in a juvenile institution. The whole prison atmosphere is incredibly real. The moment Mick walks in, he sees all the street-wise looking, tough young guys smoking their cigarettes, whistling at him and gazing at him with cockiness. Their idea of a warm welcome is spitting in your face and making you clean bathrooms. The movie is a fascinating real portrayal of the very gritty atmosphere that these guys call home for the time being. There are cold cells with bunk beds, a desk and a closet, an occasional foosball table and RC Cola machines, cafeteria food that you'd want to feed to your dog and a small black and white television for old movies. Recreation consists of some time for tackle football in the field or jogging between the double fences. Chores consist of things such as burning wood, watering plants and working in the fields. Oh yeah, and if you need to satisfy your nicotine cravings, you have to cut a deal with an Italian guy and an Asian guy who control the cigarettes and other things one may want to smoke. There's also solitary confinement if you get too out of control. With good reason, the guards lock themselves in cages away from the main room until there is a situation that needs to be taken care of.

Those who enjoy Sean Penn, true crime, cop shows and other subjects involving delinquent behaviors and jailing will enjoy this excellent film of the brutality, the trials and the tribulations of juvenile prisons and those thriving within them. All the attitude that you can handle comes in this film. Special features include the theatrical trailer and a commentary from Director, Richard Rosenthal about the making of the film, the casting and various other things. I kind of wish they would have had the gang of Sean Penn, Esai Morales Eric Gurry and Ally Sheedy back for an interview segment on their own thoughts and opinions about the film though. I don't know why this film didn't get as much recognition, but it definitely should have. Of course, this film was made back in 1983 so perhaps these types of films were not as popular at that time as they might be today. But nevertheless, "Bad Boys" deserves to stand the test of time and should be enjoyed by all.

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