There was a 7-8 year stretch in there where Sean Penn was a good actor and choosing his roles well (except for Jeff Spicoli, that role was just stupid), but he was good in Taps, Bad Boys, Falcon and the Snowman, At Close Range (which was a true story), and Colors. He was good at changing his looks and showed that he was a very good actor. In The Falcon and the Snowman, he was a skinny, pasty little punk drug dealer with a thin stupid-looking Errol Flynn mustache and he talked with a whiny little squeaky voice. The character was a little drug dealer scumbag and totally unlikeable. You'd kick his skinny little ass around the block if he was even trying to date your sister. But he was GOOD and showed that he could act. Sean Penn had a good stretch there from 1981-1988 even if those characters weren't always the most likeable. In most cases, they were guys that were a great example of what not to be in life.
After 1988, he really lost a step. I didn't see another movie with him in it until The Game in 1997. Boy did he look like crap, he looked like he aged 20 years between 1988's Colors and The Game. His acting wasn't near as good, I kinda wonder if he got into alcohol or drugs when Madonna divorced him and his acting career took a hit because he was being so unhinged. The Game was the last movie that I saw him in. Soon after, he became a full-time raving liberal idiot. I hope this Last Face movie is a picture of things to come, this clown just needs to retire.
I would have to agree with your analysis. He did have a stretch he did some good pictures and he somehow did lose his way, and badly. I tried to watch a film he did last year, “The Gunman”, it was terrible, almost unwatchable.
Yes I guess he has run his course.