LAND OF BAD – Review

(L-R) Liam Hemsworth as Kinney and Luke Hemsworth as Abel in the action film, LAND OF BAD, a release by The Avenue.

By Marc Butterfield (USAF Veteran)

Director William Eubank ’s LAND OF BAD is an interesting movie, a story about a fresh-faced young U.S. Air Force FAC, AF Sergeant JJ Kinney, played by Liam Hemsworth (Forward Air Controller, essentially works closely with the drone operator, played by Russell Crowe, to ensure that the ground unit has all of the close air support they need to accomplish the mission) out on his first mission in the Philippine Islands to find and extract a person who is their intelligence asset from a compound on the south end of the island.

Photo courtesy of The Avenue.

Getting to the point: it’s a good action movie, however feeling at times like there are two separate movies going on; The Russell Crowe movie about a 59 year old USAF captain, AF Captain Eddie Grimm ‘Reaper’, who is somehow been allowed to wear a Hawaiian shirt under his regulation jacket, along with smuggling about one hundred pounds over the allowance for a six foot tall officer. The tired trope of a man so dedicated to doing the job that he somehow flies in the face of authority while not getting ejected from the service. I don’t know, maybe that’s still a storyline, but it seems… tired.

As far as the Liam Hemsworth’s side of the story, it’s mostly really good. The fight scenes are good, some of the random accidents make sense in context. What makes it exciting is the combination of Agustin Claramunt’s cinematography, shot in Gold Coast and South East Queensland, the solid score from Brandon Roberts and deft editing by Todd E. Miller, taking the audience on a heart-pounding, action-packed journey. The film’s strong supporting cast played by Luke Hemsworth, Ricky Whittle and Milo Ventimiglia adds to the emotional bond and camaraderie between the team, along with an engaging script by Eubanks and co-writer, co-producer David Frigerio.

Don’t misunderstand, the movie is entertaining escapism action that delivers, and the acting talent is really there, making LAND OF BAD a really good romp.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars