User reviews

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.

Prior to starring in the hard-edged 1983 drama Bad Boys, Sean Penn had proved his early promise in the TV movie The Killing of Randy Webster, played a memorable supporting role in Taps (with fellow newcomer Tom Cruise), and created the definitive California surfer dude as the perpetually stoned Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. But it was Bad Boys that cemented Penn's reputation as a rare talent--an actor whose skill transcended his youth, revealing a depth and maturity that the majority of his acting peers could only aspire to. That gravity and emotional dimension is evident throughout Penn's performance here as Mick O'Brien, a chronic offender whose path to a Chicago juvenile corrections facility seems utterly preordained. The institution is hardly conducive to reformation--it's a jail for problem kids, and a cauldron for all the societal ills that sent kids there in the first place. Mick's there because he was involved in a shootout during a botched robbery of drugs from rival street gangster Paco Moreno (Esai Morales), whose little brother was killed when Mick accidentally ran him over with his getaway car. Overcrowding results in Mick and Paco's being sent to the same facility (one of the film's few stretches of credibility), and this leads to a rather predictable showdown that will take the jive prison's violence to its inevitable extreme. It's a shame this conclusion ultimately doesn't live up to the film's superior first hour, but Bad Boys remains a remarkably authentic, even touching portrait of troubled youth whose torment is conveyed through thoughtful and richly emotional development of characters. Director Rick Rosenthal (who had previously helmet Halloween II) maintains a vivid sense of setting within the correctional facility's cold walls, and through the performances of Penn and a superb supporting cast (including Ally Sheedy in her film debut as Mick's girlfriend), Bad Boys emerges as one of the best films of its kind, forcing the viewer to ask difficult questions about at-risk youth and the proper way to improve or at least preserve their endangered lives.

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.

I recently saw this movie again (on video, not the uncut DVD). I hadn't seen it in about twenty years, but it affected me the same at 35 as it did when I saw it on cable at 14. It is one of the grittiest, rawest movies I have ever seen, and it works on a visceral level. The performances of Sean Penn and Esai Morales in this film go to show why they have both continued to be two of the hardest working actors in Hollywood. After seeing Penn as Jeff Spiccolli in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," I was amazed by his range in this film (although he was excellent in "Racing With the Moon," which if memory serves me right also came out around this time). Morales took what could have been a one-note role and turned it into a caricature of a revenge-bent punk, but his talent even back then was clear that he was up to the challenge of putting emotion into the role and bringing some sympathy to Paco's plight. Clancy Brown and Ally Sheedy were excellent in their roles as well.

The movie worked not just because the acting was great, but because the story moved along at an exciting pace. It was suspenseful and was not overly cliché or pat. Overall, it was an unforgettable movie experience, a strong cautionary tale that still makes people think.

This film has to be one of the best youth crime dramas around. Sean Penn delivers a strong performance as a troubled youth, without the will but the courage to change his ways. Ally Sheedy also delivers a strong performance as the sole light in Penn's insane lifestyle. Esai Morales delivers a strong performance as a youth who has takes the wrong roads in life. Buckle up, and get ready for an emotional ride by some talented actors/writers/director in this movie.

We've seen it all before and since. Rapists and thugs are serving time in the Rainford Juvenile Facility until they are satisfactorily rehabilitated.

Mick O'Brien (Sean Penn) shares a cell with a likable young criminal who loves tinkering with radios and mousetraps and some explosive inventions of his own. His antics provide the only light relief to the violence.

There is a touching scene where O'Brien escapes to comfort his girl friend who has been pursued and raped on a highway. The otherwise unemotional O'Brien breaks down during his moment of freedom. The offender is caught and comes face to face with O'Brien behind bars. At this point the film becomes more interesting as tension between the characters builds.

Among the mixture of characters there is of course a bully who always jumps the food queue and roughs up anyone he cares to annoy for no apparent reason.

Sean Penn does a good job as a silent brooding type of thug, out for revenge although his own past life has not been an exemplary one.

I am amazed at the size of the Illinois Penitentiary of which we get a momentary glimpse of an interior cell block. O'Brien is too, and at this point he rethinks his future attitude towards life behind bars.

Not a particularly interesting film ( a kind of docu-drama of life in a rehabilitation unit). It is however a showcase of the acting ability of Sean Penn who went on to star in a host of successful films.

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

I just finished watching this movie and I wasn't that impressed

Only Sean Penn and Ally sheedy are excellent in this one ... all the other actors give only so-so performances. Nothing too spectacular...

And the plot itself is mildly ludicrous ... to believe that such a thing could happen is a sign of mental weakness ... Keep on watching wrestling and believing it's real ... haha !!!

2/5 overall. A little disappointing for myself who is a big Sean Penn fan but what can you do with a script like that and some slightly uninteresting dialogues ...

Better luck next time ...

What was Esai Morales doing in there ... still trying to figure it out ... would this "marvelous" plan of his work ?? wowo ... I was reminded of Wile E. Coyote (Morales) trying to catch the Roadrunner (Penn) ... but with a home made ice pick instead of a fork !!!

This is a fantastic crime drama/thriller about a troubled teen(Penn) who accidentally kills a young boy during a bungled drug heist. He is sent to a maximum security juvenile correctional facility and is thrown in with some of the meanest, most violent young criminals. Meanwhile, the older brother of the young boy that he accidentally killed is out for revenge and tries to get back at him through his girlfriend(Ally Sheedy) outside of prison.

Many of the horrific images in this film will stay with you for a long time. There is a constant sense of fear and danger that lingers throughout the film and is highlighted by a terrific score by Bill Conti(Rocky, The Karate Kid). Penn gives one of his best performances here. A must see film.

In a case of art imitating lifel, Sean Penn is an illiterate thug involved in a robbery that goes wrong. A kid dies. Penn gets sent to juvenile detention.

Whlie in lockup, Penn takes on the two guys at the top of the prison food chain and becomes top dog himself.

Meanwhile, the older brother of the kid killed in the robbery gains his revenge by r@ping Penn's girlfriend. Guess where he ends up? Yup, juvenile detention.

It's pretty entertaining for a prison movie. The film-makers had the good sense to make Penn's character more about action than talk.

Less thrilling are the parts starring Aly Sheedy. She's basically just a prop. In fact, at the end of Act 2, she is Penn's excuse to bawl like he always does in his movies.

Naturally, Act 3 involves the showdown between Penn and his nemesis Esai Morales. It's not as thrilling as Penn's earlier encounter with Clancy Brown and his little running mate. And it gives Penn another excuse to trot out his st00pid bawling routine.

Nevertheless, it's easy to see when watching this movie, Fast Times, Taps, Falcon and the Snowman, etc. Why he was such a well-regarded young actor. It's too bad he chose to use his rise from the mean streets of Santa Monica to cozy up to some of the world's most odious authoritarians and economic illiterates. I blame Madonna.

Why it is worth watching this movie, is to compare it to the movie from whence it took inspiration and derivation, the British masterpiece "Scum." This is a tale of a hard young man (Penn) sent to a youth offenders institution. But that is all that there is to say by comparison to the original story. In Bad Boys the scared aggression of imprisoned young men is faux-macho, always expressed as verbal and physical rage. No emotional subtlety nor human tangibility, no invitation of discomfort to the viewer as to why a society would allow the gross mistreatment of so many young people. Bad Boys is lock stock yank jock, typically missing the point of emotional shading and realism in movies of this fare. Comparing Penn's O'Brien to Winston's Carlin... Yer 'aving a laugh intcha?

This is probably one of the grittiest teen flicks to ever come out. This film puts all the films in the Dead End kids to shame. Sean Penn is perfect as Mick and Esai Morales is great as Paco. Also, this film as well as the similarly themed Born Innocent pulls no punches as it shows how the juvenile justice system which is supposed to rehabilitate young offenders does just the opposite and makes them even more hardened. This truly is one of the best films of the 1980's.

Sean Penn is "O'Brien" who is sent down for the accidental killing of an eight year old lad. His time in prison subjects him to the usual pressures and bullying but he allies with the shrewd electronics whizz "Horowitz" (Eric Gurry) and slowly but surely starts to learn the ropes, turn the tables and thrive. When he learns that the older brother of the dead boy has seriously assaulted his girlfriend "JC" (a few, sparing, contributions from Ally Sheedy) and is now incarcerated in the same institution, a deadly reckoning is on the cards with "Paco" (Esai Morales). Penn never did shy away from the grittier roles and here he carries off his part quite efficiently, though without much sparkle, but the rest of the cast - especially prison scumbag "Lofgren" (the always one-dimensional Clancy Brown) - really only make up the numbers as this predictable and rather plodding two hours of slowly building revenge drama heads to it's inevitable conclusion. It might have been more impactful at the time, but forty years on it is a wordy variation on a well travelled theme that is easy to watch and just as easy to forget.

Bad Boys, starring Sean Penn as Mick O'Brien and Esai Morales as Paco Moreno, is one of the most entertaining and disturbing movies ever. But to focus on the two leads is unfair to the host of other actors who put in magnificent performances, particularly actor Eric Gurry as Barry Horowitz.

Teen Mick O'Brien is a vicious gangster punk. When one of his armed robbery schemes goes awry, a robbery of a drug deal involving Paco Moreno, he unintentionally runs down and kills Moreno's little brother, and ends up in juvenile prison. His cell mate is Horowitz. After an awkward start they become close friends and confidantes. Horowitz, who has been there a while, teaches O'Brien the ropes. Meanwhile prison guard and counselor Ramon Herrera (actor Reni Santoni) wants to set Mick on the right path, but this is not an easy task.

The prison officials have given authority over other prisoners to two tough inmates, cell mates Viking (actor Clancy Brown) and Tweety (actor Robert Lee Rush), who get to hand out prison work assignments, receive the profits from cigarette sales, etc. They immediately come into conflict with O'Brien and Horowitz. O'Brien manages to usurp their position of authority, leading to further conflicts. O'Brien's toughness and street smarts make him the winner time and again.

The character of Horowitz, a young Jewish boy who came to juvey after a botched revenge plot, is worth a whole review by itself. What a shame that this magnificent actor, Eric Gurry, has appeared in relatively few films. Though he is small and weak and would appear to be of little help in a fight, his wit, dogged determination and superior intelligence help him to survive in this environment where he is very out of place. Despite being nothing like the other prisoners, as the film progresses we learn that he has strong criminal tendencies and prison is probably where he belongs.

Moreno, seeking revenge on O'Brien, beats and rapes O'Brien's girlfriend (actress Ally Sheedy) so he can go to prison and get even. Tweety is paroled, and Moreno moves in as Viking's roommate. These kindred spirits promptly begin plotting against O'Brien.

Circumstances take both Viking and Horowitz out of the picture, leaving Moreno and O'Brien to face a final showdown alone.

A prison movie with a difference. As the title suggests, "Bad Boys" is set in a reform school and while the boys are certainly 'bad' legally, morally and in the eyes of society the film's message is that they are the products of their environment. Sean Penn is the most recent inmate, a bad kid with a record who, during a botched robbery, accidentally kills the younger brother of a gang member. Of course, we know that while Penn acts tough he's sensitive at heart so what has to go down for him to redeem himself?

All the usual prison movie cliches are here albeit in junior form but director Rick Rosenthal handles them with considerable ease and manages to draw excellent performances from his mostly young cast. Penn, in an early role, shows real promise and young Eric Gurry is very good as his smart, street-wise cell mate. It's hardly ground-breaking but as genre pictures go it's definitely well above average.

This film shows a world that most people will never ever see. It blasts you into this intense, horrible, psychological nightmare. Thinking of what it would be like to be a part of this facility creeps me out.

The acting is top class and there are loads of familiar face that make you laugh when you think of them in recent films ha ha.

I don't want to give anything away but if you like harsh movie you will love this one! things like KIDS, Doom Generation, Thirteen etc Great movie 10 out of 10.

This film had made me want to watch more of the directors works. If this is his standard then im sure i will not be disappointed.

Lloyd Alexander

To think, from 1995 till now I thought the only Bad Boys were Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. Well, them and "Cops." And as much as I love "Bad Boys" '95, Sean Penn Bad Boys '83 is probably better. I feel like I'm sinning just saying that.

Sean Penn discarded the surfer dude slacker Spicoli act for the juvenile delinquent Mick O'Brien and he was terrific.

Mick ran the streets of Chicago. I don't mean that he was some boss of the streets, I mean like when someone asks a mother where her son is and she says, "Out running the streets." He was always in and out of trouble and he was looking for more trouble when he decided he was going to rob some drug dealers. The robbery went sideways and in his attempts to flee he ran over a kid. That act landed him in Rainford Juvenile Correctional Facility. Rainford is where we got to see what Mick was really made of.

I thought the movie was fantastic. It was a down and dirty movie from the street life of the main characters to life inside a correctional facility. I had my issues with how the facility was run but it also allowed for a natural unfolding of a pecking order and the behavior one would expect from boys locked up. There was nothing to be celebrated at Rainford, while life went on outside it stood still for the condemned.

Yes Penn had been in a few things before Bad Boys but BBs is the movie where he got people to stand up and take notice. Announcing himself as an actor to contend with.

When you look back on this film it a pretty typical grit fest as a lot of movies in the late 70's and early 80's were. Drama was akin to grime and the decay of society. This then changed to mullets and spandex!

Bad Boys works within that grit and grime framework, because we had been shown a lot of movies at that time telling us, The Bronx was 'X' and delinquent teens were 'Y' and youth gangs were 'Z'. So the movie had filmic credibility.

Add some good performance and you have a good movie. I took a point off for aging as the film won't resonate the same way and is not visually graphic by today's standards so the violence will seem a little muted.

1983's Bad Boys is one of the grittiest, most brutal prison films ever made. It's not the best prison/reform school film-that honor goes to The Shawshank Redemption. However, this is a powerful must-see film that features exemplary acting from all the young leads. The imagery shown is some incredibly brutal at times-even by today's standards. As director Rick Rosenthal points out, he wanted to add realism to his story. Without any film depicting this violence, then there is no point trying to be realistic.

The film came to fruition a few years prior when producer Richard Solo mentioned to writer Richard Di Lello that he wanted a "James Cagney version of a reform school film." Di Lello wrote the script within ten days. What is truly remarkable is how the script came across as realistic with no research. Di Lello decided to do some research after he wrote the script and to his surprise, the events that he racked from his brain turned out to be as realistic as one would expect. With the script out of the way, Rick Rosenthal was hired to direct. He previously directed the maligned Halloween 2 in 1980. This one film would be the best film he would ever go on to direct.

Mick O'Brien (Sean Penn) is a gang member from Chicago. During a drug trade that goes completely south, O'Brien is arrested and sent to a maximum-security juvenile facility for vehicular manslaughter. The person he killed happens to be the younger brother of his rival, Paco Moreno (Esai Morales). As a vow of revenge, Moreno rapes O'Brien's girlfriend J.C (Ally Sheedy). He is eventually caught and sent to the same facility where O'Brien currently resides. With these two bitter enemies under the same roof, danger lurks just around the corner.

The performances are, for the most part, very good. After watching Sean Penn as a high school student doped up on a weed in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, he delivers a completely different performance here. I was impressed at the range he shown. His character is a bad guy, but Penn was able to make the character sympathetic. Esai Morales does a solid job, although I felt this character was a little cliched. Ally Sheedy made her film debut with this movie and does a great job. Some of the people we meet in the prison are worth mentioning- Reni Santoni who plays one of the helpful reform school guards, Ramon Herrera, Clancy Brown as Viking who claims to be the leader of the prisoners, and Eric Gurry as Horowitz, the explosives-loving cellmate of Mick's.

Bad Boys does a very good job on showing how brutal life living in these reform schools can be. There are many disturbing images throughout and I really liked how the filmmakers were not afraid to show us these images. The first hour was the best part of the movie as we are introduced to Mick and his life at prison. When Moreno re-enters the movie, the film does fall into a predictable mode, but the brutality still exists. The ending fight scene, although moves a bit long, is a very climatic and unforgettable sequence. As for prison films go, this ranks in the upper echelon in terms of personal taste. I seemed to like this movie better than most, and I am fine with that. If you are looking for a prison film that features young stars at their best with disturbing imagery, maybe give Bad Boys a look.

My Grade: A-