My review was written in March 1986 after a Times Square screening.
"Bad Guys" is a poorly-scripted, would-be comedy attempting to cash in on the current popularity of wrestling. Theatrical prospects are weak for this inauspiicious debut film from distrib InterPictures Releasing and production company Tomorrow Entertainment.
Merest pretext of a story has young cops Adam Baldwin and Mike Jolly suspended from the L. A. police after a brawl with bikers in a bar owned by Dutch Mann (who pointlessly keeps popping up in the film as their nemesis). After tasteless footage detailing their odd jobs (including a leering stint as male strippers), they turn their wrestling avocation into a fulltime job under the tutelage of pretty reporter-tuned manager Michelle Nicastro.
Quickly discovering that the dirty practitioners are the stars in wrestling's firmament, the heroes don masks and become the Boston Bad Guys, tutored in illegal moves by Gene LeBell and his wife, played by Ruth Buzzi. Pic's anti-climax is their big match against the Kremlin Krushers (played by pro wrestlers Alexia Smirnoff and Jay York). Though still called the Bad Guys, heroes have changed costumes and unconvincingly become flagwavers in the interim.
Burdened with hoary, unfunny dialog, director Joel Silberg directs in frantic, comic strip fashion, having the lines exclaimed as if they were displayed in balloons above the actors' heads. The gags aren't funny and there's very little wrestling action amidst extraneous car chases and horseplay. Patrioti U. S. vs. Russia finale has already been done to death in "Rocky IV" and on tv broadcasts of all the competing wrestling leagues. As in the other disappointing current release, New World's "Grunt! The Wrestling Movie", only a handful of extras appear in the audience during big matchs that attract many thousands in real life.
Topliner Baldwin (title roler from "My Bodyguard") is unrecognizable here with blond-dyed hair. He doesn't have the body weight to be convincing as a wrestler, with his ring action adequately doubled by pro Jeff Dashnaw. Costar Jolly (stunt-doubled by champ Curt Henning) is bland while Nicastro looks out of place in a role better suited to a comedienne in the Cyndi Lauper style. As in "Breakin'", Silberg builds up the promise of romance among the three young leads and then pretends that ex doesn't exist in their world.
Pic was made with the assist of Verne Gagne and his American Wrestling Association, but fans will be disappointed in AWA's Sgt. Slaughter only showing up for a brief cameo in the final reel. Young kids might believe that the fights and feuds presented are real, but pic's in-joke of a ringside commentator named Vince (a jab at Vince McMahon, who runs the rival World Wrestling Federation, where Slaughter used to work) indicates a more interesting, truthful scenario could be built around the wars between leagues.
Film is overlaid with a relentless rock music score but fails to integrate the music with the wrestling the way Michael Hayes, Junkyard Dog and other popular wrestlers do in their live and tv performances.
