Director William Eubank’s new film “The Territory of Evil” gathered the Hemsworth brothers on the set, but not the most famous one, who plays Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but Liam and Luke. Other performers include Russell Crowe and Milo Ventimiglia. In the review below, we tell why a decent cast does not save the situation.

Pros:

good technical performance; decent cast; several tense scenes, Hooks delivered in a headset (see main text)

Cons:

unnecessary scenes and meaningless dialogues (the first half hour can be safely removed without harming the story); a lot of absurd nonsense; the lack of a clear antagonist and a weak story line of a guy with a headset and a soldier in the field, which does not stick at all; general banality and caricature of individual moments

“Land of Bad” / Land of Bad

Genre action film
director William Eubank
In roles Liam Hemsworth, Luke Hemsworth, Russell Crowe, Milo Ventimiglia, Ricky Whittle
Premiere Vudu
Graduation year 2024
Site IMDb

A four-man Delta Force team heads to the Philippines to free a CIA operative who was spying on a Russian arms dealer. But at the stage of monitoring the latter, an unforeseen event occurs, when a squad of terrorists arrives, and with the shouts of “Allahu Akbar” begins to chop off the heads of those present with machetes. Unable to tolerate such bloody arbitrariness, the Americans engage in battle with an enemy whose forces are clearly superior.

From the air, the fighters are supported by the reconnaissance-strike UAV MQ-9 Reaper, which is controlled from the military base in Las Vegas by the fat Captain Eddie Grimm and his assistant Sergeant Nia Branson. But very soon the situation gets out of control, and the rescuers themselves turn into those who need to be rescued. Keeping in touch with Sergeant JJ ​​”Playboy” Kinney, Grimm tries his best to get the victims out of the meat grinder.Looking at the title of this simple action movie, one might think that the movie will tell about Russia. But luckily, here we have another military action about valiant American soldiers in trouble, like Behind the Line (2001) with Owen Wilson, The Survivor (2013) with Mark Wahlberg and a whole bag of similar films.

Director William Eubank directed the very strange science fiction “The Signal” (2014) and the failed deep-sea horror “Underwater” (2020). Screenwriter David Frigerio once wrote a script called Taste for Blood, which was bought by Fedor Bondarchuk’s Art Pictures Group and based on it, the film Warrior was made. One can only imagine what kind of miserable trash it turned out to be. In general, both cinematographers have never lacked stars from the sky, and this project will definitely not be a breakthrough in their careers.

The problem is that the authors implement their completely noble ideas, which could be converted into a rather simple but solid action movie, at the expense of absolutely primitive means.

Where there should be intense combat scenes, the viewer is offered simple gunfights with silly, slow-mo clip inserts. Where there are hints of exciting drama in the style of “Strong Nut” (when an unfamiliar field fighter and his partner with a walkie-talkie/headset instead acquire a penetrating, confessional interaction), there is a righteous indifference. Where Liam Hemsworth’s character wouldn’t leave a wet spot, the guy continues to run through the jungle and shoot back at enemies.

The situation at the military base in Las Vegas deserves a special mention, where strippers and good beer are not enough to make the picture complete. Responsible for the work during the missions here are the pedantic captain played by Russell Crowe and his assistant, a copy of Hooks from the “Police Academy”. The rest, including the local colonel, are complete degenerates who just watch basketball without interruption, ignoring incoming phone calls. And the climax is based on this cringe factor, when the level of tension, according to the idea, should be maximum, but instead there is surprise.

For dessert, we get an outstanding life hack on how to protect yourself from an explosion: it turns out that during rocket fire, in the absence of adequate shelter, you can safely collect water in the bathtub and dive into it. And in one day, you can be captured by the enemy twice and literally get out of the water dry. And there is no normal antagonist here. And more, and more, and more…Liam Hemsworth seems to be continuing the role from the second “Irresistible” and at the age of 34 he plays a 27-year-old type of jerk who is made fun of by his more experienced peers. The eldest of the brothers, Luke, whose career, unlike Chris, is in complete trouble, exists solely for the sake of a heroic death two minutes after the start of hostilities. Russell Crowe, who once played Maximus in Ridley Scott’s historical epic, is hard to see these days, and that’s all there is to say about his role. The scenes in the supermarket with the actor’s participation, which montage alternate with scenes in the Philippine hell, are generally some sur.

All of the above-mentioned dubious moments, which are too many in the filmic space, greatly spoil the overall impression of a completely normal action movie from a technical point of view. Along with the genre’s best, it doesn’t stand up to any criticism given how different the genre is now than it was in the Schwarzenegger and Stallone era. As a matter of fact, this movie should only be paid attention to by fans of undemanding action movies from somewhere in the distant past.

And it sounds a little strange considering the fact that the authors of the film are trying to note how important the role of drones is in modern warfare. Well, every conscious Ukrainian knows this well even without mediocre American fighters.

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Conclusion:

“Territory of Evil” can only claim the attention of fans of old undemanding action games. You can easily pass by everyone else.