‘Land of Bad’ Review: Russell Crowe Upstages a Pair of Hemsworth Brothers in Junky Actioner

There’s a particularly intense scene early on in the new war movie Land of Bad. A young soldier is faced with a difficult choice when it comes to breakfast: Fruit Loops or Frosted Flakes. He stares at the two boxes intently, turning them over to compare their nutritional content (or lack thereof). It’s practically a metaphor for the choices facing moviegoers at their local multiplex these days.

A prime example would be William Eubank’s action-thriller, which feels like a Michael Bay film if he faced budgetary restraints. But for all its familiar aspects, Land of Bad does have a few things going for it, namely the presence of not one but two Hemsworth brothers (sadly, though, Chris isn’t one of them) and Russell Crowe, who spends most of the movie sitting in a chair staring at a screen and manages to completely steal it anyway.

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The story begins with the relatively untrained Kinney (Liam Hemsworth) being recruited at the last minute to join a dangerous Delta Force mission in the Philippines to retrieve a CIA asset from the clutches of, you guessed it, Islamic terrorists. It isn’t long before he’s on a plane to the area, where he has to engage in a risky parachute maneuver along with fellow soldiers Sugar (Milo Ventimiglia, not given much to do but looking very macho doing it), Abel (Luke Hemsworth) and Bishop (Ricky Whittle).

The mission quickly goes awry, with Kinney left alone after the others go missing, presumed dead. Except he’s really not alone, thanks to the literally hovering presence of “Reaper” (Crowe), who’s manning the controls of deadly drones along with his associate Nia (Chika Ikogwe) at a military base in Las Vegas. The two men engage in audio communication throughout the mission, with Reaper assuring the young man, “I am your eyes in the sky and the bringer of doom.” Because that’s presumably how drone operators talk. And in case you’re wondering about Reaper’s apt nickname, be advised that his real last name is Grimm.

As Kinney desperately attempts to survive on his own and complete the mission, Reaper has to cope with such annoyances as an airman interrupting him during a tense moment to ask his order for a Starbucks run. Most of the men on the base are so preoccupied with a televised basketball game that they can’t be bothered to answer the phone, which is particularly problematic for Reaper because his wife is on the verge of giving birth.

As things get worse and worse for Kinney as depicted in a series of tense action sequences, Reaper is ordered to relinquish his desk, leaving him time to go grocery shopping. We’re thus treated to a lengthy scene in which he strolls through a supermarket and tries to find specialty foods requested by his vegan wife, with moments of him inquiring about an artisanal cheese juxtaposed against interludes of Kinney being brutally tortured.

As you’ve figured out by now, modern combat, and its depiction in cinema, is a long way off from the likes of Sands of Iwo Jima (can you imagine John Wayne playing a drone operator who’s also preoccupied with planning a wedding for his work associate, as Reaper is here?). Unlike such similarly themed war films as Eye in the Sky and Good Kill, Land of Bad isn’t particularly concerned with the ethical aspects of drone warfare; each perfectly timed explosion blasting bad guys to smithereens is guaranteed to elicit cheers from gung-ho audiences. But the film does slyly comment on the absurdity of the process, as when a struggling Kinney finally manages to make a phone call to the base, only to be hung up on by the man answering who’s too distracted by the ballgame.

Director Eubank (Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin, Underwater) stages the combat scenes with impressive skill, even if they’re not galvanizing enough to erase anyone’s memories of, say, Black Hawk Down. And the youngest Hemsworth brother does a good job balancing his character’s action movie cred with a realistic vulnerability.

But it’s Crowe who’s the film’s MVP. Now that he no longer has to stay in shape to carry movies like Gladiator, the actor seems liberated, infusing performances such as this one and his turn in The Pope’s Exorcist with a delightfully offbeat comic sensibility indicating that his inner clown has finally broken out. Being a character actor rather than a star suits him well.