Top 5 List: Sean Penn’s Greatest Roles
April 24th, 2007 in Actors, Top 5 List

Number 5: Taps: I will be honest and say that this one is sort of a cop out pick. I am choosing ‘Taps’ because I am guessing a lot of the younger readers of this site probably haven’t seen it. Seeing a young Tom Cruise and Sean Penn is worth the price of rental. Both Cruise and Penn really shine in this movie and they are supporting actors to, who then was the bigger name, Timothy Hutton who was regarded as the future star at the time. Penn plays Cadet Captain Alex Dwyer.
Number 4: Bad Boys: Showing great range for an actor so young, going from stoner Jeff Spicoli in the excellent ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ to downright badass as Mick O’Brien in Bad Boys. If you haven’t seen it, I am your barn boss.
Number 3: Carlito’s Way: Sean Penn plays a scumbag lawyer with the great red Afro this has to be one of the funniest looks that Penn gave on the screen.
Number 2: U Turn: You think you have bad luck? Watch this movie and your gonna be happy no matter what situation you find yourself in. Directed by Oliver Stone, this one got panned by the critics but I think it is great film that I may write about in the Hidden Gems section sometime.
Number 1: Fast Times at Ridgemont High: It was hard to pick five but you really have to come back to this one because it made him the star he is today. I could go on and on about Penn in a number of Roles but Jeff Spicoli will probably be the one that lives on in most people’s minds the longest time. I shouldn’t have started this column with Penn because I would have like to added I am Sam, Falcon and the Snowman, Mystic River… but the its a list of 5 so there go.
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April 25th, 2007 at 12:08 am
What happened to the old Screenhead? For a moment, I thought I’d come to the wrong site.
“Sean Penn’s Screen Rolls”? I thought it might have been a bad pun at first. No such luck. It’s “Roles.”
And in the very next post, Edmond is “the film is defiantly worth a look.” Heh.
OK, enough nit-picking.
April 25th, 2007 at 1:52 am
why sean penn? i won’t say he’s an unaccomplished actor… but he’s not exactly one of the contemporary greats
April 25th, 2007 at 3:16 am
Screenhead is A movie site now
April 25th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
Taps? He was a supporting actor there.
What about At Close Range ?
April 25th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Believe me John, it was hard to limit it to 5. As I said Taps was a cop out because it is a film I think more people should see. And as the typo title , I was gonna find a picture with Spicolli with a joint but I couldn’t….
August 9th, 2008 at 10:00 am
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