Movie: "Bad Boys"
Year: 1983
Rated: R
Genre: Drama
Directed by: Rick Rosenthal
Writing credits: Richard Di Lello

Reviewer: -RoG-
Posted: 2/14/2008

Plot: Criminal teenage delinquent Mick O'Brien gets sent to a juvenile prison for manslaughter only to discover that the brother of the person he killed is soon going to be an inmate there as well.

Review: First off, this is NOT the ultra-shitty Michael Bay version of Bad Boys starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence... this is the gritty teen flick from '83 with both a well-crafted story and great acting all around. Mick O'Brien (Sean Penn) is no saint by any stretch. He's broken into cars, stolen purses, and even cracked a guy over the head with a tire iron to steal his wallet. Yeah, you could say he's a bad boy. Well, one day his badness gets him into more trouble than he can handle. He plans on ripping off Paco Moreno (Esai Morales) and his gang, but after a chaotic shoot out, he speeds off in a car only to end up crashing it into Paco's younger brother. And this is where things start to go downhill for Mick.

First, a judge tells him "you have committed the crimes of an adult", but since Mick is still just a teenager, he gets sent to the Rainford Juvenile Correctional Facility. Sure, it's not the Oz penitentiary, but it's no cakewalk either as Mick learns upon his arrival as all the other inmates throw shit at him and spit on him while he walks the gauntlet to his new living quarters. There he finds his roommate, a nerdy kid named Barry Horowitz who was sent there because he killed three innocent people when he set a bowling alley ablaze. He may be small, but he's like Mr. Wizard when it comes to building stuff, mixing chemicals and causing trouble. I guess that's the only reason he's still alive, because he can fix/build things for people. I can't think of any other reason that he'd survive in a place like this for more than a week.

Now there are two "barn bosses" at Rainford and, while they are inmates themselves, it's basically their job to keep all the other inmates in line and to hand out work duties - the worst of which is the shithouse patrol - ie: cleaning up the bathroom. You would think that in order to rise to the position of barn boss, you would have to be one of the most well behaved inmates... but the fact is, it just seems to go to whoever is the the toughest bully on the block. In this case it's two guys (two people are harder to overthrow than one, right?): Viking Lofgren (Clancy Brown) and Tweety. I know, not the most menacing sounding duo, but they really are complete dicks to everybody and it's clear that nobody has been willing to stand up to them yet. On a side note, Viking Lofgren has got to be one of the greatest character names in the history of movies.

Sure enough, Mick O'Brien becomes their next target of harassment, but he's no pushover. At one point, Tweety kills a kid who tried cutting him after apparently being raped by him. Everybody sees him kill the kid, but nobody will admit to it. After all, if you rat somebody out in a place like this, you'll almost certainly be the next one to die. Mick may be new here, but he knows to keep his mouth shut... this doesn't stop Viking and Tweety of suspecting him.

Mick may be a delinquent, but he's no fool. He knows they're coming to kill him to make sure he doesn't talk, so he makes some preparations of his own by filling a pillowcase with RC Cola cans. When Viking and Tweety show up in his room to finish him off late one night, Mick turns the tables on them by viciously battering the hell out of them with his makeshift "cola-basher" weapon. It's truly one of the all-time greatest beatdowns in the history of movies, especially because you wouldn't think he would be able to overpower both of those guys.

So, having put the two of them in a hurt locker, Mick is promoted to the rank of barn boss and now he gets to hand out the chores. You'd think it would be pretty smooth sailing for him from this point onward, but it's not at all. Don't forget, he killed Paco Moreno's younger brother earlier in the film, but not Paco himself.

Paco is hellbent on getting revenge, but with Mick already imprisoned, Paco decides to go after his girlfriend J.C. (Ally Sheedy) instead. He and a friend manage to chase her into a poorly lit area where they beat and rape her. Paco then wants to finish her off and instructs his friend to shoot her, but before they have a chance, some cops show up and Paco is apprehended.

Keep in mind, Paco is a teenager too. Wanna take a guess where they're gonna send him? That's right, he's now going to be joining Mick O'Briend in the Rainford Juvenile Correctional Facility. From here on out, it's just a ticking timebomb. Everybody knows the two of them are going to go at each other's throats. Mick, while furious and heartbroken about what Paco did to C.J., doesn't want to start a fight. He just wants to finish his time there and then get back to his girlfriend, but Paco is still holding a major grudge. The way he sees it, Mick killed his brother and things won't be even until he kills him too.

They do indeed have a violent final showdown, but I won't spoil how it turns out for those of you who haven't seen the film yet. I could go on and on about all the great scenes from Bad Boys, but you really need to just see it for yourself. The actors may all be really young in it, but each of them turn out some of the best performances of their careers - especially Sean Penn and Esai Morales. It's got everything you could possibly want from a prison flick: fights, escape attempts, explosive booby traps, shivs, and a guy named Viking Lofgren. How can you possibly say no to all that?

Overall rating:
(Scored on a 0.5 - 5 pickles rating: 0.5 being the worst and 5 being the best)