Some really great acting done by co-stars (Sy Richardson, Don Cheadle, Grand Bush, Trinidad Silva, Maria Conchita Alonso, etc). Some great character actors at the police station, like Seymour Cassel and Jack Nance! (Only Hopper could have wrangled a group like that!) Robert Duvall hands in a solid performance here and truly leads this film.There's plenty here to like, that's for sure. However, the script is just packed full of clichés and stereotypes. Hopper's heart might have been in the right place when he made this, but he should have taken over the picture more and rewrote the script. The last time he did that (Out of The Blue), he gave us a great film. So, I wonder if his hands were bound by the usual Hollywood elites for some unknown reason?Either way, the script is juvenile and almost insulting in its portrayal of the gang problem in LA at that time. Terrible lines were made worse by Sean Penn's absolutely abysmal performance too. His entire presence here is awkward. His character is supposed to be a kid and an outsider here, so you would think his bad acting and bland presence could work here; it does not. Maybe this is Hopper's fault? I'm not sure, but Penn really disrupts the film (the date scene in the car with Alonso was hard to sit through!).One wonders what Hopper and the same cast (sans Penn) could have turned out with an indie budget and better script written by someone with actual gang/street cred. Otherwise, this felt like a Lifetime movie.

And so goes the chorus for rapper Ice-T's hit gang warfare anthem "Colors," which also happened to be the name of the 1988 gang warfare action film "Colors," which was directed by the late actor/director Dennis Hopper, who does not appear at all in the film."Colors" was one of the earliest films to deal with the bloody gang violence that by 1988 when the film was released, close to 400 gang-related murders had occurred in the greater Los Angeles area. The police were overworked and unable to effectively deal with the increasing gang violence, communities were forced to live in fear, and the L.A. streets were a virtual war zone."Colors" was also different from previous films dealing with gangs in the fact that although it was told largely from the point-of-view of the dedicated police officers out there on the streets trying to curb the rising gang violence and ease community fears, it also showed us some of the inner-workings of gangs and why some people, mostly teenagers and young adults, join them and find such a dangerous lifestyle so rewarding. For once, gang members are given a human face so that we understand why they may do what they do as gangs.The film focuses on the L.A. Police Department's anti-gang C.R.A.S.H. (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums) unit. At the beginning of the film, and using a set-up familiar to the many buddy-cop action films produced during the time, veteran C.R.A.S.H. officer Bob Hodges (Robert Duvall) is partnered up with the brash, young Danny McGavin (Sean Penn). Hodges knows the streets and has an informal rapport with many of the local L.A. gangs, and many of them know him; there's a sense of mutual respect between Hodges and the gang members. Danny also knows the streets, but knows nothing of how to fight the gangs terrorizing them and he just wants to bust heads and make arrests."Colors" is almost episodic as Hodges and Danny go from one anti-gang operation to another, but a plot of sorts forms at the scene of the latest gang homicide. A young "Blood" gang member is gunned down in his backyard by a rival "Crips" crew, led by Rocket (Don Cheadle, in an early role playing a character with much restrained malevolence). Hodges and McGavin are put on the case, and as their investigation goes on, it brings them into contact with many of the other local L.A. gangs fighting for "turf" in the streets - eventually culminating in a bloody turf war with the cops and surrounding communities caught in the middle."Colors" does have its weaknesses in an occasionally spotty script and weak dialogue. But the film keeps you watching and engaged to what's going on on the screen. Fault can be found, of course, with the buddy-cop formula of pairing a veteran like Robert Duvall with an unseasoned rookie in Sean Penn. But their pairing works, as the two constantly clash with one another over their differing approaches to the job - but gradually build a grudging respect for the other man and his perspective on how to best handle their situation."Colors" was also remarkable, as I mentioned earlier, in that the gang members themselves are not nameless, faceless entities occupying your typical us-vs.-them war flick. No. Hopper actually took the opportunity to go inside the gangs so that we get to know some of them as characters. We don't condone anything they do, but we get to know them and understand why gang-banging is so appealing - family, belonging, lack of ambition and/or opportunity, power/status, the overall lifestyle, etc. It was a brave and revealing, and unflinching, insight, and a departure, since not having this could have made "Colors" seem like your run-of-the-mill late-'80s cop movie.A great action-crime film that comes highly recommended from this viewer.8/10

Dear Dennis Hopper, Colors was a pretty candid cops versus robbers drama. I interpreted this film as three different races facing off with each other in the concrete jungle that is LA. The black and Mexican gangs are taking each other on. The white establishment mostly plays them against each other. Some race mixing does take place but inter-racial relationships (like the one between Penn and Alonso) do not really work out in this violent scenario. The film does not delve too deep into why young black and Mexican youths turn to crime. It does not really try to take a political stance or anything. The film's message seems to be that - well, there are these criminals and they need to be eliminated in the most effective way possible. The joke about the two bulls that Duvall tells Penn and then Penn tells the rookie cop in the end seems to emphasize this message.The whole rookie cop (Sean Penn) clashing with the older mature cop (Robert Duvall) aspect of the film was a bit trite and could have been avoided. The two characters were not very well fleshed out or anything. Frankly, the lives of the gang members belonging to the Bloods and the Crips were more interesting than the interactions between Penn and Duvall. Penn and Duvall's characters were simply not interesting enough. This really affected the film a great deal. This film was nowhere as good as Easy Rider or Out of the Blue, Dennis.Best Regards, Pimpin. (6/10)

This is a masterpiece of gangland all the way, rough, raw, and perfectly shot, that engrosses the viewer every minute. This is the truest depiction of gangland L.A. you'll ever see. Sometimes it's too close for comfort. Aging, veteran L.A cop, Duvall and his new hot headed partner Mcgavin, nickname Pacman (a great written character for Penn-suitably brilliant, one would say) are after a killer, Rocket (a young Don Cheadle before he moved into more serious straight arrow characters) who's smoked a homie from another gang. Violence shown is occasional, sometimes heavy, but really when only necessary. Penn and Duvall form a great team, part of a unit called CRASH, crimes only related to gangland. Unlike Riggs and Murtaugh, they're always disagreeing, or getting into some heated arguments. It was great, the family scene, where Duvall invited Penn and his new date over for lunch after a quite thrilling car chase, where their squad car has just upturned. But too, one of my favourite scenes, was Duvall lecturing Penn in his backyard, about the hang ups Penn's future has in law enforcement, where Penn defends himself, arguing his points, totally the opposite of Duvall, who's like the mediator of the duo. Penn's points about not buttering up these homies, and not getting respect is true, but then again you have to gain respect, where Penn's character would have zero tolerance on that one. When Penn goes too far, like a cop having a bad day with these nemesis's, Duvall's retaliation, knocking Penn back in line, was truly something unexpected. It then has Penn, balking. This was truly a powerful moment. Damon Wayans was a hoot as a gang member parading shirtless, in a stereo place, bunny uniform and all, until his act is brought to a standstill. The whole near two hour movie has our dynamic duo, and other enforcers, trying to track down Rocket, that lead to interrogations, where we take delight in watching Mr Macho Penn, do his thing, one scene I would love to acted out. Also we have a sub plot, an accidental shooting that puts one cop on the stand, but also in an earlier scene we have one full frontal beaver shot, after a place is raided, Penn just stilted by the beautiful sight. The tragic finale is memorable in a great slow zoom upward shot, where not every cop tale ends well. This film is no doubt Hopper's piece of resistance, an undying portrait of L.A. how it should of really been shown. I highly advise you to give this 88 pic a viewing over. It's reality will hit you in the face.