Land of Bad is actually not bad, not bad at all. I simply had to say that, the title was practically begging me. So, what we have here is a modern take on the old-school action military movie subgenre. If you’ve lived through the eighties, this subgenre might be very familiar. The recipe is simple, we have our team of bad-ass soldiers, a dangerous mission that will inevitably go to shit, and the subsequent mayhem. I’m talking about shootouts, explosions, chase scenes, and all the other fun stuff. If you throw in a couple of good one-liners and a bit of humor, you’ve got yourself a cool little action movie that’s going to keep you entertained for ninety minutes. And that’s exactly what we have here.
Land of Bad is a budget action movie starring Liam Hemsworth and Russell Crowe, a visually sleek little time-killer worth watching. We will be following a Delta Force team on a mission to rescue a CIA asset in the Philippines. Attached to this team of hard-boiled operators is a young and inexperienced Air Force drone operator JJ Kinney. Nicknamed Playboy right away, he will maintain communication with a remote Reaper drone operator Eddie Grimm. And our team will need his help pretty much right away. So, as you can notice, this is a pretty much classic setup without much finesse. The same goes for the story, in which people will intuitively know what to do to push the plot forward.
You can think of Land of Bad as a budget version of Lone Survivor. And just to be perfectly clear, Land of Bad is not based on real events although it uses real terrorist groups to construct its plot. I’m talking about Abu Sayyaf AKA Islamic State – East Asia Province that’s still active to this day. In the lead roles, we have Liam Hemsworth and Russell Crowe. Liam was solid as the new guy just trying to make it but Russell was fantastic. His experience and screen presence made this movie that much better. Moreover, his scenes were sometimes more intense than the actual shootouts on the ground. It’s such a strange job, to be a drone operator, killing dozens of people with joystick remotely.
Good Kill starring Ethan Hawke is a good choice if you want to learn more about this. Finally, I shouldn’t forget to mention two more names you might be familiar with. The main Hemsworth, Luke plays one of those hard-boiled operators along with Milo Ventimiglia. You might remember Milo from the television show Heroes but without the muscles he put on for this role. I think that what Land of Bad was sorely missing was a memorable villain. If you’re already going to be using the old-school eighties and nineties formula, you shouldn’t forget about him. Moreover, sometimes the villains were much more fun than the heroes.
On the other hand, Land of Bad offers an entertaining rendition of modern warfare. Soldiers now have not just eyes in the sky but also airplanes and killer drones on standby. However, this also means they’re highly dependent on such items to complete their missions. And things can get complicated once you have boots on the ground as we’ll see in this movie. In that sense, we can compare it to the nineties classic Sniper starring Tom Berenger and Billy Zane. The two of them will have to fight their way through a lot of obstacles after their jungle mission runs into serious trouble.
Land of Bad was filmed in the lush jungles of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia which doubled for the Philippines. And the setting looks absolutely stunning. Finally, I have to say that it’s nice to see William Eubank back in action. His first big movie, The Signal was quite good but the 2020 Underwater was a fucking Lovecraftian masterpiece of claustrophobia and terror. And he’s got three more movies in development right now.
Director: William Eubank
Writers: David Frigerio, William Eubank
Cast: Liam Hemsworth, Russell Crowe, Luke Hemsworth, Ricky Whittle, Milo Ventimiglia, Chika Ikogwe
Fun Facts: Despite the small budget ($18.7 million) and big names, Land of Bad managed to make just $6.5 at the box office. Mostly because of poor marketing.
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IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19864802/
