Weirdly somber cat and mouse chase movie that has Luke Wilson finding out his wife is having an affair with Norman Reedus, then comes home one night to find her dead and becomes convinced that it was Reedus who did it. So full of anger he goes to where Reedus lives intending on confronting him and ends up accidentally killing Reedus' brother who attacks Wilson (understandably so because Wilson angrily storms into the residence there so it's like self defense) Reedus was already convinced that Luke Wilson murdered his wife and when he finds his brother dead, is convinced that it's time to take a gun and take his own revenge on Wilson. I need to stress that--THIS ALL HAPPENS IN THE FIRST TWELVE MINUTES OF THE MOVIE!!!! (What a first act here)

From then on, turns into a semi chase movie where one is continually chasing the other across the rainy Pacific Northwest and holding the other at gunpoint--only for the one being held at gunpoint to escape, and rinse, lather, and repeat a couple times over here and before you know it Reedus has gotten the jump on Wilson like four or five different times here. (There's one weird scene where Wilson has gasoline poured on him and then escapes Reedus throws his lighter at him and it sets Wilson on fire which he then puts off by jumping off a bridge into the water below) (oook) A little of this kinda goes a long way--esp considering how this just keeps going in circles.

Wilson eventually enlists the help of an ex cop/detective played by Dennis Farina to help prove that Reedus both did the murder--and tried to frame Wilson for it. Of course what he hasn't told Farina is that while he didn't murder his wife, he did unfortunately murder Reedus' brother which might be you know relevant information for Farina to have.

Even tho all three leads are trying to give this some sorta depth--it's written and played fairly seriously--I think the only one who succeeds is probably Farina who has a monologue here about how badly he feels about his own estranged daughter who's getting married in England i think and he hasn't been invited. It's a thrown in character detail that doesn't have anything to do with the plot but it gives Farina a chance to steal the dramatic spotlight which he very much effectively does because Wilson's overly glum and Reedus' is too filled with righteous fury (tho I did like his one moment taunting Wilson "Yeah while you were working out your anger on a corn beef sandwich and a coke in the diner I was in your home fucking your wife") (Corn beef sandwich and a coke does sound nice--the somebody else having sex with my wife not so much--but the sandwich part...)

It's not that this is bad exactly, I was with it--and somehow I was never bored enough to start like browsing letterboxd or something here-but it's a largely humorless movie and one that the longer it goes on, the more of a slog it becomes. Like it starts out potentially intriguing and somewhere along the way it ends up being drained of that because what we're ultimately watching is one murderer chasing another--or so we think. There's a last minute plot twist that actually ends up exonerating one of the two men here, tho someone should tell the two guys that cause maybe they'd stop chasing one another if they realized... but it's not like they can sit down at a diner and talk like rational people here. (Things have escalated a little beyond that) Yeah this ends up kinda fizzling out overall but it started strong at least and Farina's always good company to have in a movie like this.

I don't know why they called this Bad Seed (not even The Bad Seed just Bad Seed) Which one of them is supposed to be the titular Bad Seed anyways?!?!? It's a fully nonsensical title!

Fun fact: this was written and directed by the future creator and exec producer of "The Blacklist" (!!!!)

(Also Vincent Kartheiser/Pete Cambell has a one scene role here as a college student who owes Farina money and helps Wilson out of one jam)