The Bad Seed (1956)

What a Stinker!!
Do not waste your time with this piece of trash. PEEE U. This movie made no sense. It's hard to believe that it was ever released in the theater!! Borefest. So many holes in it. Didn't make sense--especially the ending. I'd like to know where the title came from...Bad Seed? the only thing I could think of was maybe they were referring to the retarded brother who was killed and buried, I guess that could be considered a big rotten stinking bad seed. This movie should've been called Bad Movie!

PLAIN STUPID
Oh, my God! This is one of the most idiotic movies I've ever seen, and I'm not prejudiced. It's advertised as a psychological thriller with a message, but I haven't seen any psychology or thriller or message here. First, the film is full of plot holes and they are not unnoticeable - they jump into your eyes! The acting is very poor (except Dennis Farina) although Luke Wilson is a good actor and I used to see him in good pictures. The storyline itself is very hitchy, different things happen that are difficult to understand (I mean motivation), characters' behaviour is also totally unmotivated. I'm not going to retell some scenes not to spoil them for you, although there's practically nothing to spoil here, I'll just give you some examples.
As the movie goes, guy #1 is chasing guy #2 willing to kill him. At certan point guy #2 starts chasing guy #1 and the latter tries to escape. Why?! He just wanted to catch and kill guy #2! During the other persuit guy #1 is firing his gun at guy #2 being at a long distance. He misses. Then, when he's at arms length, he doesn't shoot. Why? There's no chance to miss! In another scene two of them arrange a rendezvous at a remote gas station at night. Guy #2 knows that guy #1 wants to kill him. They meet, guy #1 has a tire lever in his hand. If you were guy #2 would you turn your back on him? I guess not, it's stupid, but apparently guy #2 doesn't think so... Then one guy's clothes is sopping with gasoline and the other chases him with a lighter. He throws the lighter and the other guy's clothes ignites. I doubt that, if thrown, a lighter (even Zippo) doesn't extinguish itself, and even if it doesn't, I doubt you can ignit a person throwing a lighter from ten or fifteen yards. Dennis Farina's character is a very harsh and impudent private investigator who'd make his own mother pay him for preparing coffee for her. You wouldn't expect some warm attitude from him toward other people. But suddenly we see his character is a very sympathetic person who wants to help Luke Wilson with open arms. Why? I didn't see him changing slowly. Just in a blink of an eye he turned out to be caring and kind person. And such episodes happen throughout the whole movie. I was asking myself all the time: why? is that possible? how did he do that? what for? along with many other questions.
I felt like the movie was falling apart in front of my eyes, it seemed so impotent and helpless. Maybe it was a good story once in the head of the director, but he proved himself to be absolutely uncapable to put it on celluloid. And the worst thing is that the picture tries to be something more than just ordinary thriller, it tries to seem thoughtful and serious work. But it can't. It's just like elementary school pupils decided to stage some serious play and - yes, they are doing it with all their seriousness, but to us it all looks just hilarious. Hence it leaves the feeling of a terrible disappointment.
The only reason I kept watching it to the end was Dennis Farina. He was like a glue, trying to stick all the parts of the movie together and working for everybody else involved. He's a brilliant, extremely talented actor, real professional, it was a true pleasure to watch him here, but sometimes I felt pity for him, because he somehow wound up being in this horrendous film. I think Farina is the only reason also why I gave the movie two stars. If it was not for him, there'd be one for sure.

DARK THRILLER
BAD SEED is one dark movie, complex and intriguing in its concept. Luke Wilson plays Preston Tilton, a man who discovers his wife is having an affair; after an argument, he comes home and finds her dead. Wilson is sure that her cast off lover, played by Norman Reedus, is the culprit. He finds out where Reedus lives, and after breaking in, is attacked and ends up killing the ex-lover. Wrong! He has killed the lover's retarded brother instead. Loverboy has a videotape of Wilson committing this murder, and from there, we are spun into a brooding and complex maze of mystery. Wilson does okay in the role, but there are key scenes where he seems to be struggling with his character; Reedus is almost too sleazy to be credible as a lover; but, and this is a big but..DENNIS FARINA steals the movie as PI Dick, who helps Wilson find out the truth. Farina brings a lot of passion and conviction to a role that could have been secondary. But as the movie winds down, Farina's performance is what keeps the movie floating. A no-compromise ending also makes this a different film.
Interesting and worth a view.