‘Land Of Bad’ Solidifies Russell Crowe As A Netflix King — Without Making Any Actual Netflix Movies

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Land of Bad’ on Netflix, a Military Actioner Starring Russell Crowe and Liam Hemsworth

Earlier this month, the internet went crazy with anticipation when the trailer for Gladiator II was unveiled. The movie seems to have everything: legendary returning director Ridley Scott, CG-assisted historical spectacle (including a flooded Colosseum!), a hot young star (Paul Mescal), and beloved familiar faces like Denzel Washington and Pedro Pascal. The one thing it appears to be missing? Russell Crowe , whose signature role as Maximus is much-alluded to, and shown in archival footage, but presumably not an on-screen character in the film. A big reason, of course, is that Maximus died at the end of Gladiator – though that didn’t stop an earlier sequel treatment for suggesting a story following the character into the afterlife, reflecting how vitally important Crowe’s participation once seemed. Now, swapping in an even-older Denzel as the film’s biggest marquee attraction makes sense. Crowe has admitted to feeling a little jealousy over not being able to work on it. But he’s keeping busy over on Netflix, currently starring in Land of Bad , a movie you may not have heard of until it made its Netflix debut and shot to number one on the Netflix Top 10 .

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Exorcism’ on VOD, an Almost-Meta Horror Flick That Puts the Frock and Collar on Russell Crowe Again

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Land of Bad is not a Netflix movie. Neither are Sleeping Dogs or The Exorcism , the two other Crowe-starring movies of 2024. (So far; he has a supporting role in Kraven the Hunter , and at least one other Crowe project could still make it to the screen in 2024.) Because none of these three movies had a high-profile theatrical release, it would be easy enough to assume that Crowe had gone the way of other male stars of a certain age, like John Travolta, a post-meltdown Mel Gibson, a pre-retirement Bruce Willis, or a pre-comeback Nicolas Cage: doing low-budget thrillers that pay a decent salary, if vastly diminished prestige.

To some extent, this has happened with Crowe. Sleeping Dogs is a particularly chintzy Memento knockoff, and The Exorcism starts off with a great meta-horror hook but doesn’t stick the landing. Last year’s The Pope’s Exorcist — another movie that spent some time atop the Netflix Top 10 — probably won’t make any ten-best lists of Crowe performances, nor will Land of Bad . The last time he gave a really good performance in a really good movie was probably The Nice Guys , almost a decade ago.

Yet there’s something comfier and more likable about Crowe than his superficially similar brothers in dad-movie arms, like Gibson or their younger equivalent, Gerard Butler . Like those guys, Crowe has a certain willingness to take on meat-and-potatoes genre work like Land of Bad , where he plays a drone pilot for the Air Force, trying to help a soldier (Liam Hemsworth) reach an extraction point in the Philippines – allowing Crowe to both play a military badass and spend at least part of the movie sitting in what looks like a relatively comfortable chair. But to the kind of role that could easily be configured to shoot in a couple of days and consist mainly of growling at superiors and smiting bad guys from a distance, Crowe brings a surprising warmth, even when he’s smashing up his facility’s TV to get his colleagues’ attention.

In one sequence, after his shift ends, Crowe’s character heads to the grocery store, where he chats with his pregnant wife, and eventually fields an urgent call from his soldier. It’s easy to imagine Gibson handling these scenes with a lot more sourness, leaning more heavily on the comedy by rolling his eyes at his wife’s requests, and it’s equally easy to picture Butler doing something similar, trying to milk some laughs out of his gruff frustration. There’s something more amiable about Crowe’s version, a kind of rumpled domesticity that doubles as genuine characterization, adding some shading to what we already know about his character. (This is not, we’ve been told, his first marriage.) At the same time, he knows how to snap into urgency when he realizes the soldier he was talking through the mission is in danger.

It’s a difference-maker – a large part of what makes the potentially (and sometimes actively) jingoistic Land of Bad feel a little more like something made by humans. Crowe brings a similar low-key charm to his role in The Pope’s Exorcist , elevating boilerplate genre trash just enough for it to feel like a real movie, rather than direct-to-streaming content. In this later period, Crowe has achieved a rare synthesis of movie star and character actor: He still has the presence that made him a star, plus decades of recognizability, but in his older and less star-svelte form, he also has some of the properties of a That Guy supporting player who always brightens your mood in any given scene.

Occasionally, Crowe does dip into more genuinely character-y parts; he’s done supporting work in both DC and Marvel movies, bringing extra gravitas to Man of Steel and silliness to Thor: Love & Thunder , where he plays Zeus. It’s fun to watch him in these types of projects – justice for his wonderfully hammy Jekyll/Hyde act in the ill-fated 2017 Mummy ! – but it’s also reassuring that he can do more grounded work without resorting to absolute shlock. Crowe has sometimes appeared uncomfortable with the expectations of Hollywood stardom, but he hasn’t struck a streaming bargain in a panic, maybe because the idea of being more of a workaday star presence doesn’t seem to panic him. Maybe he still seems like a movie star because, more than ever, he appears to really like actually making movies.

Jesse Hassenger ( @rockmarooned ) is a writer living in Brooklyn. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others. He podcasts at www.sportsalcohol.com , too.

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