Land of Bad
What brought me into Land of Bad was seeing that it was direct by William Eubank. He directed Underwater, which is a movie that I find really entertaining. He also directed The Signal, which was quite memorable, I was curious what he would do with a more grounded movie.
Land of Bad follows a group of Tier 1 operators (Luke Hemsworth, Ricky Whittle, and Milo Ventimiglia) and their JTAC (Liam Hemsworth) as they head into the jungles of the Phillipines to rescue a CIA agent who is being held captive in a compound there. They are provided remote air support from a pair in Las Vegas – the remote drone pilot is known as Reaper (Russell Crowe It’s never really made clear why the CIA agent was so important nor why they only sent such a small group in.
Land of Bad gives us Two Hemsworths for the price of one. Netflix now has a whole army of Hemsworths with three Hemsworth brothers starring in multiple military movies. Liam does well in the movie as does his brother Luke – who for some reason doesn’t look much like Liam.
This movie has the look and feel of Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. The compound and surroundings really felt like Breakpoint. If Call of Duty were a live action movie, Land of Bad would come close.
The action in the movie is very well done – it is tense and thrilling. The action is choreographed to near perfection and shot and edited with precision. The action is filmed beautifully and the sound design for the gunshots, gunshot hits, drones and explosions all assault our senses with full impact. Eubank, like he did in Underwater, employs slow motion precisely and with great effect – unlike Zack Snyder. The bullets hit and result in soft squishy noises and have an impact that throws bodies backwards. This is a very bloody and gory movie, so beware if you are squeamish.
The theme of Land of Bad was not subtle because it was clearly articulated by one of the characters early in the movie during a chest puffing conversation. Warfare, with or without technology, is a brutal exercise in humans killing humans.
There is a side commentary on incompetent management and that was too on the nose. Starbucks anyone?
The adversaries in Land of Bad are cliched and underdeveloped. The big baddie enters the movie late in the movie and makes speeches to no real effect.
Land of Bad is not a lean movie by any means and could have benefited from some editing to tighten up the runtime. The last 30 minutes of the movie was very loose and dragged on for quite a bit – the interlaced scenes of a character grocery shopping was not necessary, at least not so much of it.
The last scene of the movie was really well done and I think it was a great way to cap off this movie. It closed off a subtle emotional plotline that was introduced early in the movie.
Land of Bad is a decent action movie.
Streamed on Netflix.