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.
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.