My Review of 'Bad Seeds'

I'm not one for watching French movies but this was a really fun movie to watch. The movie defaults to English dubbing when you play it but I hate it when the voices don't match the lips of people who are talking so I changed it to the original French voices with English subtitles. I also get the original inflections of their voices when I switched it over to French. The inflection in a voice is way of communicating so why not hear how the original actors had wanted the dialogue to play out?

Bad Seeds is about a con artist named Wael. He has a very troubled past and eventually becomes a teacher to a rag tag group of delinquents. I have to say that there are certain pacing issues with this movie. They threw me a little off because certain things would happen so quickly and conveniently so you'll have to ignore some of these issues to enjoy the movie. Most of this comes from the beginning of the movie and it's a very short duration. We already know what the movie is about so they kind of quickly get us there and I thought it was a little too fast, abrupt and convenient. As the viewer I knew they had to get this plot point done so that I could move onto the main story so I just accepted it for what it was.

There are other small pacing issues throughout the movie that could have been cleaned up with a bit of editing from the writing or from editing of the film. They get more minor as the movie continued. I don't know if it was because I got used to it or that the editing got better for example there were some weird flashbacks that come abruptly. I didn't know why they were telling this part of the story until the very end. They could have utilized this back story in more ways but overall it was effective. They only have so much time to tell the story and in a way I think this could have been better as a television show.

There are a lot of cute moments with each of the characters and each of the characters in the movie have a time to shine as well. This is surprising as there are quite a lot of characters in this movie. In particular the relationship with Wael and his adoptive mother Monique is fun and warm. All of the actors did a great job in making this ensemble a fun ride. None of the delinquent kids were annoying in fact you can see how they're all good kids but with problems that needed to be addressed. They foreshadow this too in the beginning of the movie.

This isn't the first time I heard of a story like this. There's a Manga comic called Great Teacher Onizuka which I found incredibly fun to read. This movie reminds me of the fun I had in reading that manga. It dives into the problems of each of his students. Wael uses his con artist skills to help teach them. Some of the film can be a little absurd but overall it's got a charming quality that will have people smiling throughout the movie.

I wouldn't say that this is a masterpiece film but it is a film worth watching. If you're looking for a good time and just need to relax. Shut your brain off and enjoy this linear story with a heart of gold. The cast will charm you and pull you in. I give this movie a 7.5 out of 10.