Land of Bad (2024) User Reviews

Honestly not bad

[ksgillihan · 6/10 · 19 February 2024]

This film isn't going to win any Oscars or be nominated by any stretch of the imagination but it's a solid action flick. It's an interesting take on a military action movie where the drone operator (Crowe) can be the difference between life and death for an American team behind enemy lines. Of course some Hollywood magic carries the movie through scenes that wouldn't otherwise happen in real life but that's to be expected.

Crowe does a great job as an aging drone operator who should be higher in rank by now but is held back by his own stubbornness. Without Crowe in this role I think the movie would fall far under the radar (pun intended) of most people looking for a decent action movie to watch. Hemsworth does a decent job in his role but it's Crowe that holds the film together. Worth a watch.

Modern look at classic action flicks

[eJay17 · 7/10 · 18 February 2024]

This movie is a kind of a blast from the past, when action movies like "Commando" or "Missing in Action" ruled the VHS rental stores. It has absolutely everything that fans of adult cinema appreciate and value - shootouts, swear words in the dialogues, simple motivations and quite good execution.

Liam Hemsworth may not be the king of acting, but he delivers a sufficiently interesting role to follow his fate with excitement on face. For me, it was a pleasant screening, although it lacks some clear and positive argument. It is a solid action movie in a modern edition, but without unnecessary corporate influences. It is worth watching, because such productions are basically not produced today.

The major reason this movie didn't make waves is from ZERO marketing

[sgtmattkind · 7/10 · 18 February 2024]

I don't review many movies but I felt obligated when I saw how poorly this is doing in the box office. It's unfair for how well this movie does while watching it.

When I first saw this film on a list of movies to watch on a...non reputable website for movies...I thought it was a Netflix or Amazon flick because I've never heard of it before, let alone seen a trailer. Here I come to find out that this movie was not only released in theaters but it was released TWO DAYS AGO (2/15). The marketing team completely dropped the ball on this movie. The major reason that I believe it failed is because there was zero reaching out to potential audiences.

This movie has your basic covert jungle style warfare with enemies who can't aim but it kept me entertained and into it the entire time. The acting is decent, and Russell Crowe is great as an 'in your ear drone operator'. The way they used technical equipment in this movie is better than I've seen of late in any modern movie with drone warfare.

If you want to see a jungle shooting movie with American good guys shooting at random bad guys then this movie is for you. It's very entertaining and I felt into it the entire time.

7/10.

A taste in the difference between military divisions.

[scorp76 · 7/10 · 27 March 2024]

A lot of people are gonna hate this movie or give a so-so rating because Hollywood has lied to you into thinking every soldier/officer in the service is a uberman killing machine.

They are not. The movie serves as a stark difference between techs at bases and field units. And how even the lifestyles and air/atmosphere for these different operatives is.

How drone operators like Eddie are in a more office environment of detached, relative low stress, short shift situation while field operators like Kinney are in high intensity, high stress, extreme hours situation.

Even their personal life priorities are completely different as shown in the last minutes of the movie.

Land of Bad is not there for you to hate on one group or another just to enlighten you that if you haven't walked in either person's shoes you could never understand what they are going through as you the audience in your comfy chair with a cold drink and snack in your hands.

I'm the cavalry

[martingreen-71835 · 7/10 · 22 February 2024]

A surprisingly entertaining and enjoyable movie based on modern warfare.

I'm not usually a fan of war movies, but with a cast including Liam Hemsworth and Russell Crowe I gave it a chance, and I am glad I did.

It's your typical good guys vs bad guys movie, with the obligatory fighting, bombs and action which in general work quite well.

However this movie relies heavily on modern warfare tactics, with drones, eye in the sky, and missiles which adds something a little different.

The acting is quite good, and although some of the characters are somewhat stereotypical and lack imagination, but not enough to spoil the movie.

The plot is a little over the top, unrealistic, has a few unlikely turns, but its an action movie at heart, and this allows the writers free reign over the plot.

It's never going to compete with the likes of Saving Private Ryan, but was likely never intended to do so.

It's a fun movie watch, that doesn't challenge the viewer too much.!

Very good movie.

[petroscephas-14362 · 20 March 2024]

Good movie. Good characters. Good actors. Cinematography is top notch. I just don't understand how a Black Hawk turns into a Huey (back and forth) in mid air. :D Fun errors apart, I say again: a very good movie.

It reminds me of the good war action movies of the eighties and nineties. The action is there, for sure, but I appreciate when the story is based on characters and not the action.

It reminds me a little bit of the vibes I got when I watched Triple Frontier. Once again, character driven storyline.

Russell Crowe is a bit on the chubby side but delivers a fantastic performance. Milo Ventimiglia's Master Sgt. John 'Sugar' Sweet is a character to remember.

It is actually quite ok

[Movie_Reviews · 6/10 · 16 February 2024]

Not as bad as I feared. There is absolutely no nitty-gritty feel to it. Nothing dark or foreboding. Nothing really suspenseful. No, it floats gently on the surface, fairly nice, controlled and polished. But on the other hand it is mostly fairly realistic and surprisingly gory. The enemies cannot aim if their lives depended on it (which it actually does, making it even more surprising that they cannot aim) and hand grenades has huge explosions, tearing down walls and stuff. But overall fairly realistic, still.

So yeah, I would give it a 6.5. Absolutely not a 7 and since 6.5 does not exist I am forced to give it a 6.

Enjoyable action movie.

[subxerogravity · 7/10 · 17 February 2024]

It seems like the type of movie that will come and go which is too bad because it was decent. Not the best I've ever seen but purely entertaining for what it was. Liam Hemsworth is starting to look more like his brother Chris in his old age. Possibly the one disadvantage to the film because you look at Liam and you think Chris in those Extraction movies but this movie is not on that level.

Russel Crowe was amazing in this film. He did so much with so little. It was a part that felt like anyone could play but Crowe put on the acting muscles for this. I see why he's won an Oscar. He's not going to win one for this but he gave a charming performance that made the non-action parts more interesting Yeah man, truly sorry that this movie seems to be designed to go straight to the streaming services after a courtesy release. Never even heard about it just saw it pop up on my movie theatre app very suddenly when I wanted something to watch.

Well worth the time!

Russell Crowe is incredible

[crbrown25 · 8/10 · 18 February 2024]

The Land of Bad follows a.special ops rescue mission to its conclusion. The tone and feel of the movie is reminiscent of Sicario and Top Gun: Maverick. The story is good with some unexpected twists, thrills, and lessons.

All of the actors do a great job but Russell Crowe steals the screen through the character 'Reaper,' a civilian contractor working as a drone operator. Reaper cares deeply about his job and takes the mission seriously. The team in the field is his number one priority and that's what makes Reaper so darn likable.

All in all the action looked and felt great but that's not what makes Land of Bad a good movie. In fact, I wouldn't even call Land of Bad an action flick. At its heart, Land of Bad is drama about the difficulties surrounding modern combat and its effect on our psyche.

Don't get me wrong. It's not an Oscar winner or anything but it's a serious and entertaining movie that I enjoyed enough to write this review.

You want action? You got action! Only let down being some silly and totally uncredible plot turns.

[imseeg · 7/10 · 18 February 2024]

Straight forward action from start till finish, in a story about an inexperienced soldier (Liam Hemsworth) who has to rescue someone in a foreign enemy country, while Russel Crowe is guiding him through this enemy territory via drone cameras above, firing some missiles now and then, killing some bad guys.

The bad: this story has got some incredibly silly plot turns, so it cant be taken seriously. For example: a drone command centre cant be reached because the phone is off the hook, because the guys on duty are having a break and watching football and eating pizza. What the what?!!

The good: the action is okay. It's fast. It's big. It's loud. And it's reasonably realistic, with some nice explosions and lots of chases and attacks and even a few knife fights. It'll do for anyone into straight forward action movies.

What's kinda special about this movie is that they tried (and only partly succeeded) in making the leading actors look human, by letting them chitchat about all sorts of little things, like their favorite (vegan) food or candy and more of that sort of dribble. These supposedly witty dialogues do feel too artificially constructed and do not ring true to life...

Nothing extraordinary, but still enjoyable as a solid action spectacle, despite a few incredibly annoying credibility flaws.

I unsuccessfully tried to suspend my disbelief

[utterbolx · 3/10 · 10 March 2024]

I'm not military, but I have military in my family and I know that never in a million years is the military going to go into a spec-op not knowing whether or not a new member of the team has ever done a halo jump, never mind the actual member hasn't even ever done it on a training mission.

Also a drone with IR surveying an LZ, cant see 500 fearless 'militia' with trucks and rocket launchers and trucks and rocket launchers surrounding the LZ that they magically knew where to be at that given time.

We've got F18's, Drones, Hellfire missiles raining down everywhere, and the untrained arabs/vietcong/russians just keep running into the line of fire without a care in the world!

Not to mention, truck eastbound, mounted patrol westbound, ok I'll just stand in the open chatting to command and then jump in the water at the last minute and not keep moving into the tree line!

Dale Dye will be spinning in his grave at the inaccuracies. Silly film.

Phenomenal Action!

[ajith-v-m · 10/10 · 20 February 2024]

Ignore the bad reviews. This movie made me sit at the edge of my seat. Been a while since I saw an action movie this good! The camera angles, sound effects and direction is just top notch! It had a lot of stealth elements as well which really catches my attention; felt more like a Splinter Cell Ops military action movie. If you're into stealth, action, and great effects, then this movie is for you. Find some of the reviews here quite hilarious where they state there wasn't enough emotion. This isn't a love movie for Pete's sake! Look at it as an action flick and you'll dig every moment of it! Totally loved it, must watch!

Nothing original, but good action.

[paulclaassen · 6/10 · 17 February 2024]

Someone should have warned them 'Land of Bad' is a marketing disaster as a title for a movie. There is no way I'm going to remember the movie by this title.

'Land of Bad' offers nothing original. We've seen this premise so many times before and chances are you're going to watch it for the action and not so much the story. A Delta Force team is sent to the Philippines to extract a CIA agent (whom we never get to see). Kinney (Liam Hemsworth) - also known as Playboy - is mistakenly assigned to the operation, and - as predicted - becomes the protagonist.

When the extraction goes horribly wrong, the team relies on drone operator 'Reaper' (Russell Crowe) to be their eyes and guide them to safety. 'Land of Bad' is a no-holds-barred actioner with action and adventure from beginning to end. There are a few very good action sequences and even well crafted suspense. I do think the film's final moments could have been better, but in general I rather enjoyed 'Land of Bad' - even if just for the action and to see those ripped bodies in action.

Barely ok !!

[winak · 4/10 · 13 March 2024]

Movie scrapes the surface of ok with bouts of exaggeration and over the top situation. There is an active op which has gone horribly wrong, the soldiers and Commanding officer at the command center are engrossed in a basketball match like it was a frat house. Operative in imminent danger is trying to reach the command centre to abort the scheduled bombing and the only available mode of communication a landline, which nobody is answering and they even turn off the phone ringer. Really !!! In the real world that would be dereliction of duty which would be an automatic court martial with a serious punishment to go with it. Another instance, there is a bomb delivered by a drone where there is a huge ball of fire and all the bad guys die but the green turf is completely intact. No crater, no nothing. Next, there is a bunker busting bomb that goes off and all the bad guys lay dead or grievously wounded but the captured US Delta force soldiers miraculously are unhurt. Liam Hemsworth for most of movie is a bumbling, stumbling, wet behind the ears soldier. He gets captured and rescued, all of a sudden he turns into an ingenious soldier converting water bottle into a receiver for communication. Quite the transformation. You have to be extremely naive or stupid to overlook all of this. However the reason given by the producers of the movie, why the film didn't do too well is due to poor marketing. Believe me, you could have 24/7 ads on electronic billboards in Times square and on prime time tv yet, that wouldn't have saved this movie.

An OK way to spend a couple hours

[tecems-31573 · 6/10 · 17 February 2024]

A fairly decent and engaging action movie, with enough gunfire and explosions to satisfy most action fans. Russell Crowe does a good job here, although he's really too old and overweight to accurately portray a US Air Force Captain. The female SSgt who works beside him seems confused about her branch of service as her tape reads "US AIR FORCE" but her rank insignia is that of a US Army Staff Sergeant. Also, Hellfire missiles are rail launched, not eject launched.

Nitpicks aside, I'd call it entertaining. The actors playing the Special Ops soldiers seem convincing, and look quite fit for their roles.

Check it out.

Land of Bad, actually Not that Bad.

[vikingtales · 7/10 · 17 February 2024]

I wasn't really expecting too much from this movie, from all the negativity and bad reviews, but I thought how bad could it actually be with Liam Hemsworth, Russell Crowe and Milo Ventimiglia in the line up.

And to be honest I was pleasantly surprised that Land of Bad, actually wasn't that Bad, some good solid performances from the actors playing the Delta Force team and from Russell Crowe my oh my, hasn't he put some weight on, need to get down the gym Russ.

Overall I think a pretty decent action movie with to be honest a bit of a duff title, and really does it really matter 3 Aussie actors are playing Americans, probably not.

Ok, so not a great film in the great scheme of films, but certainly an entertaining and a decently shot directed and acted one for a couple of hours,

Not a 10/10 imho, but certainly not a 1-5, I'd give it a solid 7/10.

It's Decent but Unoriginal!

[I-love-Popcorn · 6/10 · 18 February 2024]

Indeed not original but if you are into special operations rescue mission movies this flick will moderately entertain you.

A Delta Force team is out to extract a CIA agent. The mission goes bad and with the help of a drone operator (Russel Crowe), they fight their way into the jungle against a little army of Islamist terrorists (in the Philippines) who luckily can't shoot straight.

If you like the genre and storyline rather watch Rescue Dawn (2006) with Christian Bale who lost 25kg to play this role. It is based on the true story of a US Navy aviator who got shot and captured over Laos, Vietnam.

Pleasantly surprised

[GabrielSymes · 7/10 · 22 March 2024]

There are a lot of movies based around the special forces do incredible things format. And, honestly, it's a genre that's a bit overcooked, IMHO. Land of Bad is an exception.

Land of Bad, while not pushing boundaries, delivering exceptional performances, or providing a particularly insightful look into this world, does deliver an engaging slice of entertainment. It's an action film that is devoid of melodrama.

Russell Crowe delivers a solid performance, as a passionate drone operator who battles against bureaucracy and for the special forces unit under his watchful gaze. But none of the actors have space to stretch their legs and deliver meaningful performances.

I was surprised this was a Cert 15, there are some scenes that are quite violent, beyond the to-be-expected shoot-them-up scenes.

If you like these kinds of action films, you will not be disappointed with this one. It's a solid piece of cinema that will keep you engaged.

A pleasant surprise

[Lythas_85 · 9/10 · 18 February 2024]

Reviwers saying this movie is garbage.. dude, what are doing? Are you comparing it with born on the 4th of jult, platoon or that one with Michael j fox and sean penn (Casualties of war)?

It ain that deep but it sure as hell isnt some movie where the main character goes from rookie to super badass in the course of the whole movie.. he is a man after all, and that mary sue bs is only played out with female characters..

anyway,movie was great. Liked Milo since gilmore girls and heroes and im happy to see him getting major roles.. russel crowe, now old and obese, cant do no more action scenes but he is able to pull his role off perfectly hemsworth is good too as a rookie jtac that got dragged into the mission and is not really on the samel level compared to the delta boys.. but in the end, he makes it..

nicely done entertaining movie.

anything below 6 for this movie is nosense

[alfanojacopo · 7/10 · 21 February 2024]

-The movie is on the style of 'Lone survivor'

-Action is very good

-Very bad ratings are given just because people are mad at how bad some military personnel is represented or because it's not 100% realistic. Fair enough but those elements don't play that big of a part to justify a 1 or 2 rating. In addition, the vast majority of military personnel are heroically represented

-The acting by the main subjects is of a high standard, I was surprised, especially Liam hemsworth shows that he did not take the role just because of his brother halo.

If you like special forces and military films you will like it.

The writing was the worst part

[latinfineart · 3/10 · 20 February 2024]

If you're a pure action freak and you have absolutely no qualms about believability, feasibility, or realism you might get a kick out of this movie. Hemsworth was given a really lame script and he was asked to pretend that he's some sort of operator with absolutely no experience, yet he manages to be the hero nonetheless. It's a very cliche story, very poorly written by a hack writer who probably got $5,000 for the script. Somehow the project got two big stars, and got green lit. It was a fairly large production but the feasibility aspect of it was just ridiculous.

There are far better action films out there and the only saving grace about this film was Russell Crowe. He was great as usual, other than that better to take a pass.

Actually a lot better than the ratings would indicate.

[darvin-2 · 8/10 · 31 March 2024]

I almost passed on this one but it was the trailer that got me interested. I would give it a 7.5 if you could rate it that way but I rounded up to an 8 because I feel the movie is under rated.

Crowe is an outstanding actor and you almost won't recognize him in this role as a captain that has landed on the wrong side of command. Liam Hemsworth isn't one of the better known Hemsworths and I can't say he really stood out in this performance but he did do a descent job.

Without giving anything away, it's basically a story about a military op taking a number of seriously wrong turns for the worse. There are some very weak plot twists and the overall plot is pretty predictable with few surprises but if you can ignore that you should thoroughly enjoy the pace of the action.

They did a good job of inserting some good humor into the script and I found myself and my wife laughing out loud several times. There are a few moments where the movie has some gratuitous violence that probably wasn't necessary but overall for a war film there is far worse.

Thankfully the CGI is very believable and they didn't over do the special effects and the ones it does have fit nicely into the film.

Overall I recommend this as a watch. It's better than many of the movies that have been real disappointing lately. So if you have a couple of hours and want to watch a pretty descent movie, I think you will enjoy this one. It doesn't have anything that anyone should really give it a low rating for.

Enjoy!

Stupid name, good movie

[stevencayer · 7/10 · 22 February 2024]

For a movie with such a stupid name, LAND OF BAD is actually pretty good. It's a soldier survival story starring the hunkiest hunks who ever hunked. Rookie officer "Playboy" (Liam Hemsworth) joins a Delta Force team on a dangerous rescue mission in southern Philippines. This team includes Abel (Luke Hemsworth), Bishop (Ricky Whittle), and "Sugar" (Milo Ventimiglia). When everything goes wrong, the team is forced to rely on an Air Force drone pilot "Reaper" (Russel Crowe) as their eye in the sky. The farther into this movie I got, the more I enjoyed it. It successfully brought me to the edge of my seat; lucky I had a seatbelt. This has moments of slow-motion, but they feel more earned than normal and not over-used. One of the few movies where I liked the slow-motion is this movie, and 300. The actors did a good job, the highlight being Russel Crowe of course. He's fighting his own kind of war against incompetent dude-bros who care more about watching a basketball game than actually doing their life-or-death jobs. The movie can get pretty violent, but that just added to the realism. My one problem was that I wanted more details about the bad guys. Overall, I feel bad for LAND OF BAD because it had almost no marketing behind it, and I don't think it'll survive the "DUNE-fall" that's coming. If you enjoy this type of movie, I'd say go see it now before it disappears.

This inferior copy of Lone Survivor is not impressive

[derek-a-charette100 · 3/10 · 24 April 2024]

If anyone has read my reviews to other war movies, you will quickly find that I really, REALLY hate when war movies fail to get the basic details correct. It's a sign that they don't care enough to get it right. It doesn't cost more to be correct, and I am dumbfounded as to why they would go through the huge trouble of making a war movie, only to get so many things wrong.

Portraying a USAF combat controller as a lost, panicky amateur that has apparently not ever expected to see on-the-ground contact... REALLY? This is downright disrespectful.

FYI, JTAC and PJ's are among the most highly trained, elite special forces in existence. These guys are trained in everything from SERE to sniper school, to advanced field medicine, counterintelligence, psychology, hand to hand combat, and anything you can imagine.

Their entire job is to embed with special forces... Rangers (Green Berets), MARSOC, Raiders, SEALS, Force Recon, even DEVGRU and Delta Force, and even operate with PJ's that go behind enemy lines to extract downed pilots.

Second, sending a 3 man team with one JTAC to a large, heavily defended COMPOUND for an extraction? You have got to be kidding me.

Third, calling a JTAC AIRMAN a soldier is incorrect. SOLDIERS refer to Army. Marines refer to Marine Corps, Airmen refer to Air Force, Seaman refers to Navy.

Fourth, all 4 of these muppets are out sitting on top of rocks, right out in the open, while there is abundant foliage cover just a couple meters behind them. Really? They would be in the freaking bushes, well concealed.

And I'll stop here, because I could be at this for hours. My wish is that filmmakers finally start to give a damn about getting war movies at least somewhat believable. There is no excuse for this!

A brutally violent survival thriller.

[JonPaula · 7/10 · 19 February 2024]

A story that pits the ruggedly handsome and capable Liam Hemsworth against a horde of insurgents deep in the jungles and caves of the Philippines. Liam is excellent as the untested JTAC officer - who gets his first taste of combat when his extraction mission goes badly wrong. Basically, it's "Behind Enemy Lines" meets "Lone Survivor."

The action is loud, graphic - and despite the multitude of drone-kills - fairly intimate, too. Director William Eubank strategically uses short bursts of slow-motion to emphasize key moments in the frantic battle scenes, and the results are pretty awesome. "Land of Bad" earns its hard-R rating and then some.

Meanwhile, Academy Award winner Russell Crowe is amusing and believable as the "guy in the chair" - helping the youngest Hemsworth brother navigate the hostile terrain via a drone he's piloting overhead. This parallel plot delivers a lot of realistic levity to the otherwise serious script. I found myself particularly invested in Crowe's passionate dedication to this young solider he's never met. Which is good, because outside of their comms-only relationship, we learn exceedingly little about their backstories - only that one like Fruit Loops, the other is on his fourth marriage, and they're both from Ohio.

There's some nail-biting set pieces loaded with huge fiery explosions and blistering fire-fights: which should please all audiences looking for a audiovisual rush. But outside of a surprisingly wholesome moment in the film's final scene - this is not a particularly deep or affecting film.

A solid, by-the-numbers tactical adventure dads everywhere are sure to love, I thought "Land of Bad" was a rather COOL film. One of the better #RegalMysteryMovie selections!