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Bad Boys is a gritty, suspenseful film dealing with drugs, rape, death and young delinquents existing in a hostile environment. I just want to point out that this is NOT the Michael Bay film of the 90's! This version of Bad Boys was released in 1983 to moderate success at the box office, compared to the summer blockbuster status of the newer Bad Boys films. Rick Rosenthal (Halloween 2) occupied the director's chair with strong support coming from Sean Penn, Esai Morales and Reni Santoni. The story goes like this: Mick O'Brien (Penn) is being held in a juvenile facility for the vehicular manslaughter of his rival's younger brother. The rest of the plot is a riveting tale of suspense as his nemesis Paco (played by Morales) rapes Mick's beloved girlfriend while Mick is still in prison. This vengeful act lands Paco in the same prison where our character Mick currently resides. What follows? You guessed it; a barrel full of drama as a dramatic confrontation between Mick and Paco ensues! I first saw Bad Boys a few years ago after I purchased it for 3 dollars in a used movie bin. It ended up being the best three dollars that I ever spent! It really is that good of a movie. I realize I might be a sucker for early 80's dramas, but I rank Bad Boys as the most under-rated film of Sean Penn's entire career. It's hard to believe that he was only 22 in the movie, having just come off the set of Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Esai Morales is solid throughout as Penn's rival as well. Apparently Esai used to get quite a bit of attention from young girls visiting the set. This left Sean Penn in a crabby and malicious mood, which resulted in him getting a gym membership and having some prep talk with director Rick Rosenthal. For more on that conversation I suggest you listen to the films commentary track. All of the acting in Bad Boys is 100 percent believable at all times. I actually felt like I was in a deadly prison environment where one minute I have a best friend and the next he's making a stereo to blow up in my face! Oh yes…Bad Boys is that bad! On a more technical note, I really enjoyed some of the steadicam shots that follow characters down various stairways and around sharp corners. There is even a mistake in the last 10 minutes of the film where you can plainly see a steadicam operator directly in the shot! But it is barely noticeable considering how intense the last few scenes are! The movie itself is rather dark in some spots; which is probably the result of the lower budget price tag. But nonetheless, this film is much better than any other teen angst movie of the 80's that I've seen (including Coppola's 'The Outsiders' released in theatres only 2 days later!). There is really so much more to Bad Boys then I can write in these few paragraphs. It paints a dark picture for the American judicial system and an even darker picture for dramas of the early 80's. Please see this movie!

10 OUT OF 10

Sean Penn, Esai Morals, Ally Sheedy, and the other principles in this film deliver great, realistic, gritty performances. Certainly one of the great performances of Penn's career.

My only complaint is that the DVD release by ARTISAN ENTERTAINMENT & REPUBLIC PICTURES - Deletes 2 scenes from the original. (That may explain the bargain pricing). The deleted scenes I noticed are: 1. The scene in which Ally Sheedy's character picks Esai's character out of a line-up. 2. A scene inside the Juvenile facility where the inmates are watching the Richard Widmark film "KISS OF DEATH", where he pushes the old, wheelchair-bound lady down the stairs, much to the delight of the inmates!

Bad Boys certainly has a lot going for it on many levels, but there are enough implausible moments in the script that keep it from any type of "classic" status. The story centers around Sean Penn playing an angry and violent young hood from the streets of Chicago getting sent to a tough juvenile detention center after accidentally killing a young boy during a botched robbery attempt. The balance of the story deals with Penn adjusting to his new confinement and having to prove how tough he is again and again. Once he has established himself as the toughest kid in the place, the plot is turned on its side. The older brother of the boy he killed (Morales) is also sent to the facility... for raping and almost killing Penn's girlfriend as revenge for the boy's death! From the moment he arrives, everyone knows that the score will have to be settled once and for all. Who will survive??

Yes, its a pretty good premise, but too many detours are taken before the anticipated climax finally arrives. And many of them just don't make sense. First of all, there is no doubt that Penn's character is one tough punk. Yet he is just not physically imposing enough to be the "barn boss" as the toughest inmate is called. Yes, he whips the two punks who once held the title in a crafty manner, but there would no doubt have been many others waiting in line for that title. Another problem deals with Penn's escape attempt. After learning of his girlfriend's rape, he actually breaks out of the facility and somehow is able to make it all the way back to Chicago from the location several miles out in the country. Even if he were actually able to do this (which wouldn't be likely), notice how once he's captured and returned to the lockup, they don't even punish him!! Uh huh! I'm guessing the escape and brief rendezvous with the badly bruised girlfriend were meant to establish some sort of motivation for Penn wanting to kill Morales. But honestly, would this type of character need such motivation? Not likely. In addition, Penn is momentarily taken to the state prison for adults and warned that this is the path he is headed down if he screws up again. And apparently this is why he initially refuses to fight Morales when he first arrives at the facility. Penn just wants to do his remaining time and split. Again, not likely. A guy like this would not hesitate to accept a challenge from any man who violated his woman. Another problem deals with how Morales and Penn are left in the same cell block right up to the moment Morales is about to be transferred to another facility. Wouldn't it have been a better idea to keep the two sequestered from one another, even if it meant putting one of them in the hole for a while??? But then we couldn't have had our final fight then, could we? Oh, well.

There are a lot of good aspects of this film, too. The acting is outstanding, the casting is picture perfect, and the locations look authentic. The film is full of surprises, and a lot of them work. The Jewish whiz-kid who shares a cell with Penn steals every scene he's in. Look for a young Clancy Brown as the yard boss de-throned by Penn. Ally Sheedy gives a good performance, but she doesn't look like she belongs in that neighborhood! And I like the fact that the film doesn't try to make Penn or any of the others out to be misunderstood kids. They are all rotten to the core and deserve their punishment! Despite some flaws with the script, Bad Boys is still worth at least 7 of 10 stars.

The Hound.

When this was released in 1982, I remember the movie title "Blackboard Jungle" being tossed around, but this movie was the 80's updated version. The innocence of the 50's no longer applies to these kids.

Esai Morales and Sean Penn were terrific in this movie! I saw it in the theaters as a youngster, and since I'm from Chicago and most of the exterior shots were from reform schools in and around the city I was scared straight quite early. One is really drawn into the characters here; it's easy to empathize with Mick O'Brien (Penn), but it's also easy to empathize with Moreno (Morales) who wants revenge. Keep in mind that these guys are both hoodlums of the highest order and we shouldn't feel anything for either of them. For me, this adds to the story.

I've long held this movie high in script, casting (look for an uncredited cameo from Jamie Lee Curtis walking with an afro in the street in the opening sequence), and its timelessness, whereas movies like "Colors" or "8 Mile" simply tap into the urban vein yet again for substance.

Bad Boys was party where it began...urban north Chicago, 1982! See this film - you'll not be sorry!

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Bad Boys and The Falcon And The Snowman are the first film that Sean Penn was taken seriously as an actor and not just a James Dean wannabe. A lot of people with that rebel persona have come and gone, but Penn's proved to have staying power in his adult roles.

But it was a part like Mick O'Brien, kid from the mean streets of Chicago that first attracted the movie going public to Sean Penn. Bad Boys is not your usual teen dream Brat Pack film. Penn's representative of some of the baddest of the bad from the Eighties.

Penn's a high school kid from Chicago, but the kind who only goes to school on occasion, maybe to get messages from his hoodlum friends. A heist he plans goes horribly wrong and the little brother of another tough kid, Esai Morales, is accidentally killed simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

That last crime finally puts him in reform school and of course Morales winds up there as well. That's after raping Ally Sheedy who is Penn's girl friend. That sets up the final confrontation between them.

Bad Boys is one of a long line of films going back to Wild Boys Of The Road dealing with the juvenile delinquent problem and the incarceration thereof. It's interesting how rape is used as a weapon in two instances here and how it's thought of that way. Morales rapes Sheedy as a way of getting back at Penn and in the reformatory the two who run the cell block where Penn and later Morales is put, Robert Lee Rush and Clancy Brown, use it as a way of establishing their authority.

Brown who will tell you this is a method of enforcement belies his own gay nature with those muscle pictures in his cell. And O'Brien's cellmate, Eric Gurry is also a latent case, maybe more. His performance in many ways is the most interesting in the film. He's a nerdy kid who happens to be one unusual inmate for the place. He's been picked on and in retaliation bombed a bowling alley where his tormentors were hanging out. Not too many kids his age have the scientific knowledge to pull off that and what we see him do here.

Still the film builds up to the climax between Penn and Morales and Bad Boys does not disappoint in the end. Bad Boys might have some charter Brat Pack members in the cast, but John Hughes wouldn't be doing a project like this.