We’re in the “try anything once” phase of Russell Crowe’s career, and he’s wearing it well. There’s a looseness to his latterday choice of role, with none of the stage-managed strategy of a hungry star with Oscars in their immediate eyeline; he’s done all that. He is in his improvisational free jazz phase, and it has given us Big Russ as a deranged road-rage maniac (Unhinged), the pope’s personal exorcist (The Pope’s Exorcist), and an appearance at WrestleMania 39 in character as said pope’s exorcist – to say nothing of the gigs and music videos. Actor Liam Hemsworth seems to be enjoying Crowe’s current energy too – having worked with him on Poker Face in 2022, he’s now re-teamed with him for Land of Bad, a thriller in which they play a dynamic US army duo: one a heroically rippling rookie field operative, the other an irascible old-timer with a range of colourful traits and ticks to help him stand out from the rest of the cast. You may be able to figure out which way around the casting goes; splendidly, Crowe’s character is named Eddie “Reaper” Grimm.
Despite quality performances from both leading lads, Land of Bad won’t exactly knock anyone’s socks off. The action sequences are frequently excellent, and the plot is the kind of thing we’ve seen in decent films of this nature before: one soldier stuck in hostile territory on a mission that’s gone wrong, another guy helping remotely while being hampered by institutional failings. There’s something about it that doesn’t fully cohere as the key sense of momentum or suspense is missing – where you ought to be chewing your fingernails off during the final odds-defying race against time, you’re more lightly curious to see whether or not they’ll make it, and it would be just as interesting to see them not make it too.
This is a film that has trained us to enjoy its explosions and set-pieces, but makes the outcomes seem less important, perhaps due to an attempt to turn the film into a parable about the flagging commitment of most modern soldiers to the principles of being a good soldier. This may not be a topic close to most people’s hearts, but skilled storytelling can make you care about anything: look at The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp from 1943 that can make anyone connect with the pathos of a veteran commander grappling with a less principled army than the one he grew up with. Land of Bad beats Blimp on stuntwork though, so that’s a plus.
• Land of Bad is on Prime Video from 26 April.
