Little known fact: the Land of Bad is where the Bye Bye Man lives <insert har-de-har-har here>. Also, a single serving box of Frosted Flakes is 120 calories while a Froot Loops box is only 100. That along with a decent number of other surprisingly random human moments make up this otherwise serious-minded military/war film.

The flick is about a team of operatives going into a hot spot in or around the Philippines. Things go south and a sole operator (Liam Hemsworth) and his eye-in-the-sky drone pilot (Russell Crowe) must work together to rescue him.

What I loved about the first half of this film is how concise, clipped, and workman-like it is. It’s about professional soldiers doing a job and it feels grounded (to a lifelong civilian). Movements, targeting, and no-nonsense dialog were the order of the day.

The film surprised me, especially during taut shootouts which had a dirty cinematic grace. It uses slow-mo strategically around explosions that made them feel visceral in their volume and violence. I was loving these extraction sequences so much.

Then the second half of the film happens and its a lot more standard-issue action hero stuff. It ceases to have that clipped military feel and becomes a more typical – if still well filmed – action flick. I didn’t hate it but it was a bit of a let down after the first half.

And lest you think this is all non-nonsense Lone Survivor type military film, lets not forget our Frosted Flakes. The film uses short but effective moments to humanize the characters… and it has a curious sense of humor about itself. Late in the film, it almost goes too with borderline satirical roadblocks that definitely left the sense of realism behind.

So even though I think the film uneven, I appreciated its action and its surprising human elements. I don’t know where Land of Bad came from or why they stuck with that title, but it’s a surprisingly great and cool action flick.

Score: 85