John austin
This big time early eighties release has been all but forgotten until it started showing up on cable a few times recently.Sean Pean was still too young to be a political agitator, and he was desperate to shed his Jeff Spicoli image with this tough youth prison flick. He does a good job as O'Brien, who winds up behind bars after killing someone during his juvenile crime spree. He rises up the ranks of the prison hierarchy until Esai Morales, the brother of the boy he killed, winds up in the same jail looking for revenge. It's an old time prison movie right down to the wailing siren you hear during a daylight escape. In addition to Penn and Santoni, you'll also see a youthful Clancy Brown perfecting his on screen villainy as a brutal con.This movie was kind of a big deal in our area when it was filmed. I lived near where they shot most of it, and I remember the newspaper put out a casting call for local kids to try out for bit parts in the movie.
dworldeater
Bad Boys is a very gritty and tough action/drama starring Sean Penn as a young criminal who ends up in reform school. Sean is very good here and totally believable as juvenile delinquent and bad kid from the wrong side of the tracks. The film is taken from his point of view and humanizes the kids that society locks up and tries to forget about. The support cast is strong with Ally Sheedy as O'Brian's girl, Reni Santoni as juvenile detention officer, Alan Ruck of Ferris Bueller fame as Mick's buddy, Esai Morales as his nemesis and Clancy Brown with an awesome early performance as heavy Viking. Bad Boys plays as a very authentic juvenile jailhouse rock film. There is real good performances and depth to the material. Bad Boys is a very tough and violent movie that gives a pretty accurate portrayal of what these wayward boys must endure. In this setting, only the strong survive. Sean Penn is very convincing and is a very different character than he previously portrayed as Spiccoli in Fast Times In Ridgemont High. He showed early on that he is very talented and he has a lot of range. Bad Boys is classic and one of my favorite films that Sean Penn has done.
videorama-759-859391
I must say this is not a film, I'm particularly fond of, but nonetheless, it is a good movie, and an important one, especially in it's time, when it would of been visually affecting. With not the most inviting of covers, which has a drained Penn, nose beaten, looking towards us, with malice, but you should see Morales, underneath him. The scene pits these two enemies in a no holds fight to the death, Morales, fuelled with an unrelenting vengeance, over the death of his brother, to which Penn was partly accountable, which makes for a frightening premise and showdown, as the two have ended up in the same penitentiary. Morales in retribution which didn't land him in here, raped Penn's girlfriend, a young Ally Sheedy. There are a few scenes of Bad Boys, that are memorable, some of them violent. But Bad Boys is a very violent movie, the cover isn't falsifying the bloody content of the film. One bloody scene, which had me howling with revenge, was Penn cracking top dog/daddy, Clancy Brown, in the face with a pillow cover full of RC cola, therefore taking Brown's place, him and his black sidekick, not too happy, where earlier they murdered a smaller black kid, and got away with it. Of course, no one's gonna testify against big oaf Brown, that was until Mick O Brien stepped into the picture as a proper daddy, but of course is mot gonna lag about something that's ancient history, as that would make him a dog. Clancy Brown gives one of his best ever bad guy performances here, you'll forget just how good, this much versatile actor was. Eric Gurry, a not much known actor who you would of seen in the Pacino vehicle, Author Author, or a little known film, could The Zoo Gang to name not many) I guess, plays the joker of the group who hates solitude so much, it's scary, after one incident where he rigs a radio, where Brown plays a very bad price for messing around with it, defects. A shockingly violent scene. Gurry bunks with Penn, where the two become good friends. I don't know, I found Bad Boys disjointed in bits. It has repellent violence, yet still it has a terrifying edge about it, that would of come handy as a student video/teaching tool for wannabe tough guys, which like Scum, this is another pull no punches frightening prison tale and teenage rebellion. Reni Santori is a relief, and adds a softer touch as a prison counceller. Released in 1983.
Christopher James Anderson Jr. (casedistorted)
The reason being my father was in this movie right when he was out of high school, still living in Chicago. Right around 9 minutes in during the scene where all the "students" are standing outside the "high school", he was standing there with his group of friends at the time almost dead center of the camera in the dark blue and white checkered shirt. It's fascinating to me because I never knew my dad during this time since this movie was filmed 3 years before I was born. He had hair and was incredibly thin, which of course 30 years later much has changed. I believe he told me the school or building (can't even remember if that building WAS a school because I don't think the interior that was filmed was the same building) was in a very dangerous neighborhood and they were told not to be there after dark. So they could only be around during the day while filming and he got lucky and became an extra. This was the entire reason I knew of this film nearly 20 years after it's creation and watched it and loved it. It's an awesome film even though you can clearly tell it was from the 80's (Similar to watching something like The Warriors) it sends a message that is timeless and still relevant to this day. It's incredibly powerful and still one of my favorite movies and since Sean Penn is an incredible actor, it's great to see him at such a young age before his career had really taken off. Definitely give this movie a watch, it starts out kind of slow in my opinion but once it gets to the meat of the film where the rest of it takes place, it's a wild ride.
