SEAN PENN WITH ESAI MORALES IN RICK ROSENTHAL'S 'BAD BOYS'

Sean Penn from the soundtrack cover of Rick Rosenthal's BAD BOYS Year: 1983 Rating: *****

In 1983, between playing a poignantly-logical, well-read military academy student in TAPS; a fan-favorite, classic-quote-spouting stoner in FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH; and a rambling, high-strung, coke-dealing spy in THE FALCON AND THE SNOWMAN, director Rick Rothenthal provided Sean Penn his greatest, most authentic performance in BAD BOYS where ironically, driven by an intensely defiant glare, he hardly speaks at all...

As the first act takes place in the crime-ridden night-streets involving a Spanish vs black gang's big-money drug-deal as O'Brien and naive pal Alan Ruck attempt snaking the spoils, leading to the death of the little brother of Esai Morales's Paco Moreno, who intensely bookends the movie's revenge-driven main antagonist spot and yet, during the primary lockup scenes in a severe youth reformatory straight from the previous decade's gritty and uncompromising, steadicam-gliding, rock/funk-blasting exploitation era, it's Clancy Brown and Robert Lee Rush as violent/raping versions of high school bullies that terrorized 1980's cinema...

Sean Penn, Reni Santoni and Robert Lee Rush in BAD BOYS

Curbed by Penn's sidekick in Eric Gurry's brainy and resilient scene-stealer Horowitz and featuring inspired adult performances by Reni Santoni and Jim Moody as jailers equally tough as the kids while Ally Sheedy, downplaying Penn's dreaming-of-a-better-life girlfriend, steers perfectly clear of cliche romantic-melodrama...

Resulting in what's more a genuine prison flick involving teenagers than an expose about troubled-teens, highlighted by two pivotal sequences: the first as O'Brien uses soda cans inside a pillowcase to take out his rivals, and the last in an anticipated fight with Morales — overall making BAD BOYS a unique hybrid of brutal-action and well-timed suspense.

Robert Lee Rush in BAD BOYS

Clancy Brown in BAD BOYS

From BAD BOYS

Sean Penn and Eric Gurry in BAD BOYS

Sean Penn in BAD BOYS with Ally Sheedy and Alan Ruck

Esai Morales and Clancy Brown in BAD BOYS

Esai Morales and Ally Sheedy in BAD BOYS

Ally Sheedy in BAD BOYS

Eric Gurry in BAD BOYS

Eric Gurry in BAD BOYS with Sean Penn and Robert Lee Rush

Clancy Brown in BAD BOYS with  Robert Lee Rush

Ally Sheedy and Eugene J. Anthony in BAD BOYS

Sean Penn in BAD BOYS

Sean Penn in BAD BOYS with Clancy Brown and Robert Lee Rush

Jason Gedrick in BAD BOYS

Sean Penn in BAD BOYS

Jim Moody in BAD BOYS

Clancy Brown and Robert Lee Rush in BAD BOYS

John Zenda in BAD BOYS

Sean Penn in BAD BOYS with Reni Santoni

Sean Penn in BAD BOYS with Esai Morales

John Zenda in BAD BOYS

Sean Penn in BAD BOYS

Cameraman caught in BAD BOYS

Alan Ruck in BAD BOYS

From BAD BOYS

Jamie Lee Curtis in BAD BOYS

From DVD of BAD BOYS

Sean Penn in BAD BOYS with Dean Fortunato

Sean Penn and Reni Santoni in BAD BOYS

Sean Penn in BAD BOYS

Sean Penn in BAD BOYS with Ally Sheedy

Sean Penn in BAD BOYS

Clancy Brown and Esai Morales in BAD BOYS