Drone Crowe

Land of Bad is the kind of film whose trajectory is becoming common: it has a perfunctory theatrical release that barely makes a splash before landing on Netflix a few months later and dominating the charts. It’s not the first movie of that kind to star some combination of Russell Crowe and the two Hemsworth brothers who aren’t Chris. The appeal of this one is simple, and includes better-staged action sequences than from a typical blockbuster these days.

Land of Bad’s main plot is a pretty straightforward military thriller in which an extraction team heading into a doomed mission in the Philippines is watched over by a drone pilot (Crowe). It’s a war film set in the jungle, so call it Predator but without aliens. (The film was shot in Australia.) Director Will Eubank finds some creative ways to stage explosion-heavy action, especially when dealing with a budget that appears to be relatively low.

The one big twist is that Crowe’s character, Eddie “Reaper” Grimm, is based on a domestic military base, and Liam Hemsworth’s “Playboy” and the rest of this team are in the jungle on a mission. The other soldiers include Hemsworth’s brother Luke, Ricky Whittle, and Milo Ventimiglia.

While the soldiers are dealing with the ISIS-associated Abu Sayyaf, Crowe’s drone pilot character is at the military base in the U.S., with the distractions of his pregnant wife and office politics, not to mention Starbucks orders and March Madness college basketball games. It’s a war film on one side and something of a workplace drama on the other.

Crowe is good. His movie star days are behind him, but he shows an impressive commitment to this role. It’s a rare modern part for Crowe that has nothing to do with exorcisms. And at one point, relieved of his desk, he heads to a grocery store. I remember a plot from Crowe’s A-list era— Body of Lies? Maybe State of Play?—where he did something similar.

The film spends much of its time on a running discussion between Crowe’s Grimm and Hemsworth’s soldier, where they talk about the mission and life, including the Crowe character’s endless number of children and ex-wives. The plot effectively uses a race-against-time gimmick. Bombings are scheduled 15 minutes apart, and Crowe has to convince his bosses to call off one of the strikes when his men are in danger.

Geopolitics isn’t the film’s strong suit. A scene in which the terrorist leader (Robert Rabiah) talks isn’t exactly the “you don't know what it is not to have a home” speech from Spielberg’s Munich; it’s more like something out of 24, or perhaps David O. Russell’s Three Kings, where the torturer makes Mark Wahlberg drink oil. (The 24 theme, meanwhile, continues with an actual countdown clock until it’s time for the military strike.)

Director Eubank made a 2014 sci-fi film called The Signal at the beginning of his career; it wasn’t great, but showed that the filmmaker seemed to know what he was doing. He’s probably since been best known for 2020’s Underwater, the Aliens homage that starred Kristen Stewart.

Land of Bad has connected with some viewers, thanks to action filmmaking that punches above its weight, as well as the more unheralded work from later-period Russell Crowe.