Land Of Bad review: Liam Hemsworth goes to war while Russell Crowe goes to the store
This B-movie war adventure is a throwback—in ways good and bad—that mostly knows how silly it is
Film Reviews Land of Bad
It’s a customary cliché to say that certain actors are so compelling, a viewer might pay to watch them read the phone book. Land Of Bad, despite its hilariously simplistic title, isn’t quite that on the nose, but it does feature an extended sequence of cutaways to Russell Crowe … doing his grocery shopping. And damned if it isn’t some of the most compelling stuff he’s done in ages. Nothing crazy happens; no punches are thrown, no stacks of tins are scattered. The closest thing to a joke is Crowe standing in front of a sign that reads “dry aged meat.” It’s just Crowe in a grocery store, buying things, checking his list, and doing that stuff we all do. Somehow, it’s riveting.
Incidentally, the rest of the movie is about war in the Philippines.
There’s every possibility that all involved might have wanted to call the movie World Of Shit, to coin a military phrase, but settled on a more PG version. It’s what Liam Hemsworth’s airman “Playboy” Kinney finds himself in after a rescue mission goes severely sideways, and he’s left to fend for himself in a jungle full of people shooting at him. All he can rely on is a drone, piloted remotely by Las Vegas-based Crowe as Captain Grimm “Reaper,” armed with three missiles, like limited power-ups in a video game.
Though it’s ostensibly based on a real incident, which happened in Afghanistan rather than Southeast Asia, Land Of Bad feels like a throwback to the type of B-movies Chuck Norris regularly cranked out in the ’80s, like Missing In Action. Vietnam, often manipulated by evil Soviets, was the movie battlefield of choice then; now, it’s still numerous nameless Asian people getting killed by the blue-eyed hero, as they serve a higher puppet master, in this case a Yemeni terrorist. The racial optics are terrible, just like they are in most actual wars, and the script clearly feels obliged to throw in a few “We can’t be racist because …” moments as a counterweight, like Reaper’s bond with his Black female coworker, or the POW that Playboy hopes to save turning out to be the lone Asian-American soldier seen onscreen.
In one location, Hemsworth is hiding behind trees, falling down hills, and trying not to get shot; in another, Crowe is goofing around at a Las Vegas military facility in a Hawaiian shirt, getting cranky about Keurig coffee pots, bitching about the phone ringer being off, and worrying about his fourth wife becoming pregnant and her vegan dietary demands. If it seems weirder that he’s in the military at his age and shape than it did that he was a Pope’s Italian exorcist last year, well, the movie does halfway explain that. Never, however, is it suggested that he’s especially great at his job. So when other officers pull rank and threaten to take over the mission, there’s not a lot of tension there. For once in a military movie about mavericky types, it seems like the officers could do just as well at the task as the wacky loner.
The action scenes almost get boring initially. Once Playboy is alone, well, it’s not like they’re going to kill him off, so where’s the drama? Fortunately for us, but not for him, the mission takes a dramatically worse turn about halfway through, with more people involved and the stakes getting much higher. By the time he’s running through an underground base in his underwear, there’s little doubt this movie knows what it is, and it ain’t any kind of “true story.”
Thanks to dark filters and camerawork that mixes handheld, drones, and steady shots, this never feels as cheap as some of the ’80s movies it emulates. It’s shot mostly in Australia, but not the parts that look like the outback desert we’re so familiar with from other films. The location scouts earned their keep, with a bad guy base that looks expensive, and like it’s really being blown up.
Director William Eubank, whose previous films include The Signal (2014) and Underwater, seems to be settling into a groove as a capable B-movie guy. It’s worth noting that executive producer Jared Purrington has worked as a storyboard artist or illustrator on every Zack Snyder movie since Man Of Steel; Eubank doesn’t use much slo-mo, but the directors seem like they would be kindred spirits. The major difference is that Eubank does seem to be in on his own joke, which is crucial—Land Of Bad might be quite offensive if it were possible to take it seriously. It’s still hard to recommend, exactly, but if you can get through a rough first act, you’ll see both absurd military superheroics and the greatest grocery run ever. Forty years ago, it might have even started a franchise.
25 Comments
The closest thing to a joke is Crowe standing in front of a sign that reads ādry aged meat.āI mean, there are entire comedies that donāt have a single joke that clever.
āSee, itās funny because itās meant to be funny but itās not funny and thatās what makes it fun-āFuck off.
Wow, this sounds… bizarre, to say the least. Like, a bunch of people had to look at this and go, āYes, letās spend millions of dollars on this.āForget the war stuff, just make a cut of the mundane Crowe scenes as a short film.
This cast includes not one, but two, of the Lesser Hemsworths!
Together they equal 3/4 of a Chris.
At least they didnāt sink so low as to cast Larry Hemsworth, the worst Hemsworth!
Just because he barely has an eight pack doesnāt mean heās not as good as his brothers!
Shemp is the worst Hemsworth.
Whatās going on with Russell Crowe?Ā Heās had a weird career, man.
Heās been in DGAF mode for at least a decade.Ā Doesnāt mean he hasnāt done some good stuff (Nice Guys is a personal favorite) but his selections definitely seem arbitrary.Ā This was probably a REALLY easy shoot for him.
Yeah I think theyāll throw him a couple more prestige roles in his next decade, maybe Nolan will pick him up to play a curmudgeonĀ or patriarchal figure a la Michael Caine, something like that.
Good for him.Ā I aspire.
Oh yeah, I meant that in a good way.
I got it. š
He hit ācomfortable middle aged, DGAF as long as they pay me enoughā mode a few years ago and Iām all for it. Heās too good an actor to not be at least entertaining in anything he does, and when the project is worthy of him (The Nice Guys) he can still excel. Also worth checking out The Water Diviner.
Mellow, well paid Russell Crowe is infinitely preferable to grumpy, punchy, trying to prove himself Russell Crowe.
I was looking into what I might go see this weekend and saw this among the selections. The title seemed…ESL? Or maybe something that makes sense to Australians?
Nah, just a war movie title. Nothing special.
I donāt know, the trailer looks watchable. And Iāve had a soft spot for Liam since watching his great turn in Arkansas. Never liked him in anything else but damn if he wasnāt super entertaining in that.
I was just about to say the trailer looks good, the musicās good, performances good, dialogue good. Note Iām not saying itās great. Itās just good. Itās like all text book what you do to make a show like this. Everything you expect, itās there. Nothing more, nothing less.
Just the trailer music alone could be studied as āthis is what trailer music sounds like for 90% of all action movies these days, so if you want a career in this then try and emulate itā. Similar could be said for everything else in the trailer.
Tell you what, though, if this were made in the 80s the camerawork would have been steadier. This actually sounded interesting, but I watched the trailer and that shaky handheld effect turned me right off. (Itās not as bad as it was in the late 2000s, JJ Abrams and all that, but it still sucks.)
A Tropic Thunder Behind Enemy Lines mashup with many less engaging actors
I really want to go to that grocery store It’s so clean and has dry aged meat
40 years ago it would’ve beenĀ Cameron Mitchell playing the Crowe part.
So, is this a sequel to Extraction or not? Extraction Cinematic Universe?
I think itās actually one of the better military films to have been made in the last couple of years. I heard in an interview by the film makers that it was inspired and loosely written based on a true story, so I think if people are fans of the genre they should give it a look. This movie is some of Liam Hemsworthās best work, and proof that heās only just getting started. Not forgetting memorable performances from Ricky Whittle, Luke Hemsworth and Milo Ventimiglia. They seemed pretty believable as operatives to me. Their time on screen replicated the bond Iāve seen of actual military teams who are thrust together at short notice. Frankly, I think the cast is slightly more multicultural than youāre them giving credit for. Personally I think war movies are less about the politics of war and more about relationships between brothers (and sisters) in arms, and the lengths they go to to be there for each other. Yes, there are also explosions, weapons, planes, etc, the people who sat with me in the cinema and I felt this movie was super intense in many partsā¦far from boring. Iād love more women to be in the story, but considering it is based on a true event, thereās only so much you can do about that. Chika Ikogwe, the actress who plays Reaperās co-worker, is stunning, and given the powerhouse (Russell Crowe) she was working with, I think she delivered a fairly nuanced and memorable performance. I enjoyed the movie for the entertainment that it delivered. Iād be interested to see how veterans react to the film. Definitely not b-movie IMO.