Bad Boys (1983)

Author: Old Mother Hubbard

“Bad Boys” (1983) Sean Penn plays O’Brien, a juvenile delinquent who accidently kills an eight year old boy after he tried to rob his brother Paco who was on his way to make a major drug transaction. O’Brien ends up in Rainford juvie for his troubles which is a rather unpleasant place to reside. As fate would have it, Paco ends up in the same block of the prison after he rapes and brutally beats O’Brien’s gal JC.

I hadn’t seen this one for a while and I just watched it again. I’ve probably seen it at least 10 times. If you haven’t seen it I recommend watching it big time. There are lots of great action sequences throughout. There are a few holes in the story and some stuff that makes no sense i.e., Paco getting double crossed on the initial drug deal but decides to meet up with the double crosser again for the real deal (it wouldn’t happen IRL) or Paco getting caught red handed by the police while raping and beating JC (who knows Paco and said he did it already anyway) but JC has to identify Paco in a lineup. Why? Another unrealistic moment is when Mr. Daniels has Horowitz read in English class about a teenager who was killed while trying to rob a liquor store. No one in the class recognizes the teenager’s name Warren Jerome and Horowitz says “Who cares?” The classroom bursts in to laughter but suddenly Viking is all pissed off and tells them all to shut up. Viking then says “That was Tweety, you assholes.” In the film everyone in the class quiet down and look all sad and somber, even O’Brien, but IRL they would have burst out laughing even harder because Tweety was a total asshole.

There is some other dumb shit like that in the film but the performances by the actors really make up for any shortcomings this film may have. Esai Morales as Paco Moreno, Clancy Brown as “Viking” Lofgren and especially Eric Gurry as Barry Horowitz are outstanding in their roles. If you haven’t seen it (most of you probably have) you should make it a priority to see it. 5 stars.

This ought to get the blood boiling from Meow and her 200 alts.