Mick's crimes include snatching purses, shoplifting, vandalism, and fighting, but he aspires to bigger and meaner things.

Mick's cellmate is Barry Horowitz, a small, intelligent Jewish kid who firebombed a bowling alley after some boys there assaulted him for flirting with their girlfriends.

Their cell block is dominated by a pair of brawny sadists named "Viking" Lofgren and Warren "Tweety" Jerome, who take an immediate dislike to Mick.

After learning this, Mick is overcome with desire to see J.C., so he and Barry escape the double perimeter fences through the use of a corrosive paste that weakens the links enough to kick a hole through them.

Before returning to Rainford, Ramon takes Mick to visit a maximum security prison, to show him where he could end up if he continues to live the life of a criminal.

In an attempt to retaliate on Mick's behalf, Barry creates a bomb by planting fertilizer in a radio that he places in the cell Viking and Paco share.

The exploding charge injures Viking's face badly and Barry is condemned to solitary confinement for the remainder of his sentence, a fate he fears more than any other.

Eventually, Mick gains the upper hand on Paco and prepares to deliver a fatal stab wound with the shiv while being encouraged by the others to kill.

Mick then drags a beaten Paco to the supervisors and heads back to his cell, crying remorsefully beneath his breath.

The idea for the film came from producer Robert Solo who told writer Richard Di Lello he was looking for "a Jimmy Cagney story set in a modern day reform school."

He went into character for the whole shoot and stayed there, had a real wolf's head tattooed on his arm, checked into hotels as Mick, the whole thing.

[7] Bad Boys was released on Blu-ray by Lionsgate Home Entertainment for the first time on February 1, 2011, presented "complete and uncut."

[8] David Denby of The New Yorker magazine argued, "Bad Boys is never less than tense and exciting, but it's coarse and grisly, an essentially demagogic piece of work".

[10] In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote, "Sean Penn's performance is the chief thing that separates Bad Boys from mere exploitation".

[11] Perry Seibert of All Media Guide said "Bad Boys proves that great performances can overcome routine story lines.