Bad Boys

3 December 2018

Bad Boys 1983

• Director: Rick Rosenthal
• Based on a novel: no
• Cast: Sean Penn, Reni Santoni, Jim Moody, Eric Gurry, Esai Morales, Ally Sheedy, Clancy Brown
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Sean Penn – This Must Be the Place, The Tree of Life, Milk, The Interpreter, The Assassination of Richard Nixon, 21 Grams, Mystic River, Pauly Shore Is Dead, I Am Sam, Before Night Falls, The Thin Red Line, She’s So Lovely, Dead Man Walking, Carlito’s Way, Racing with the Moon, Fast Times at Ridgemont High
• Reni Santoni – 28 Days, NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues
• Esai Morales – NYPD Blue, La Bamba
• Ally Sheedy – Welcome to the Rileys, Life During Wartime, Hill Street Blues
• Why? Sean Penn
• Seen: 30 November 2018      

       Chicago. Young criminals. Drug Dealers. Rival gangs. Classmates in a slum high school. Guns and drugs and rival groups. Guess what happens. And of course the little kid gets killed.

       Mick (Penn) ends up in a juvenile facility. It’s a very grim place.

       I really hate the machismo of this world we live in. Sometimes I despair.

       What am I supposed to do with this movie? It certainly is filled with stereotypes. Is it going anywhere or is it just gorging itself on violence? Are we supposed to cheer for the new king of the prison block?

       Why was this movie made? Maybe it’s trying to make a political statement about a world we know exists. Or maybe the makers of the film just like violence.

       It’s geared to press all kinds of buttons and a lot of people’s buttons got pushed. Maltin gave it three stars. Many viewers gave it eight, nine or ten stars on IMDb. But for me, it just doesn’t work. For me it’s just one big cliché about people I want to care about (I do in real life) but don’t. It’s just plain boring. The facial wounds are laughably fake, just smeared on red paint. And it goes on forever. Please, let it end now!

       But because Sean Penn does an OK job of being Sean Penn it doesn’t get 0* from me, it gets

½ * of 5 (Hal gave it 2 ½ * for its attempt at realism).