Bad Man (2025)

> ***"Very carefully, drop that fucking banjo."***

There's an enjoyable anarchy to writer and director Michael Diliberti's debut film **BAD MAN** starring Seann William Scott loosely based on true events.

If you grew up on **POLICE ACADEMY** and **SUPER TROOPER** films, there's a lot to love from the punchy **s**creenplay offering a lot of laughs about a bucolic Tennessee town's local police department full of loveable yokels with badges who seem unaccustomed to any serious crime beyond public masturbation and the occasional DUI.

Unfortunately for Colt Lake, Tennessee this makes the town a primary target to run a meth lab, hiding in plain sight aided from the townsfolk's naivete and the local Keystone Cops' police department.

When a vehicular homicide investigation that is seemingly going nowhere with the local police draws the presence of sergeant Bobby Gaines representing a statewide Narcotics Task Force (William Scott) the local deputies are quickly upstaged by his unconventional tactics.

One scene in particular hits, comically, on the nose as the literal Bill of Rights is nearly shoved down the throat of an uncooperative suspect in police custody.

Skeptical of Agent Gaines' Harry Callahan approach to policework is local cop Sam Evans (played by Johnny Simmons). Paired with his own deputy DJ (played by the late Chance Perdomo -- in his final film role) they're quickly pushed aside while Agent Gaines steals the show with more civil rights violations than the ACLU could handle.

William Scott is enjoyable as the wisecracking, enigmatic Agent Gaines here, and juxtaposed against the more straight Simmons' Officer Evans, for whom locals regard more like their very own Barney Fife rather than a bona fide lawman, this sets up a satisfying conclusion that turn our expectations upside down.

William Scott has earlier proven his gift for darker-themed, antihero roles, from 2011's **GOON** to the short-lived **LETHAL WEAPON** series -- and his sardonic delivery is right at home in a role that seems perfectly written for him.

But the real surprise is Simmons' performance as Officer Evans, a man burdened by his late-father's long shadow and in need of a challenge to prove himself to the town he loves. Simmons finds a great balance with the comedy and the film's more serious themes -- and I wouldn't mind seeing what he does next.

Rob Riggle as the avuncular, devoutly religious Police Chief, Ethan Suplee as the town heavy, with Lovi Poe as the mayor's daughter -- round out a great supporting cast here.