Movie review
February 9, 2024 · 113 min · R
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
Land of Bad is a 2024 action thriller about a Delta Force team on a hostage rescue mission in the southern Philippines that turns into a brutal 48-hour survival fight after an ambush. A rookie Air Force JTAC officer and a veteran drone pilot provide remote eyes and support from thousands of miles away. The story focuses on military brotherhood, duty, survival under fire, and the disconnect of modern drone warfare, with no audience-visible identity politics, representation signaling, activist dialogue, or social-justice framing in its narrative, marketing, or execution.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Land of Bad.
Woke representation / casting
Casting features a Black actor (Ricky Whittle) in an ensemble Delta Force team role and a female actor (Chika Ikogwe) as a professional drone team staff sergeant handling communications. These align with plausible modern US military demographics and appear incidental and unemphasized in story, dialogue, or marketing with no identity signaling, quota framing, or “brilliant [identity] leader” tropes.
Woke political dialogue
Dialogue centers on military duty, survival decisions, and light personal details such as a character’s dislike of vegan food. No activist slogans, identity-based arguments, or modern social-justice messaging appears.
Identity-driven story themes
The narrative follows military camaraderie, rescue loyalty, and remote teamwork during combat. No plotlines, arcs, or messaging built around race, gender, sexuality, or identity politics.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Some scenes show bureaucratic friction and the emotional disconnect of remote drone warfare versus ground combat, plus a brief superior confrontation. These stay within operational military realities and do not frame critiques through lenses of patriarchy, whiteness, systemic identity oppression, or anti-Western activism.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. This is an original story with no established source material, historical figures, or canon characters altered for ideological or identity-driven reasons.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
No documented anti-woke or right-leaning complaints that the film promotes DEI, identity politics, or activist messaging. Public discussion stayed on action quality, realism, and entertainment.
Creator track record context
Primary creative voices center on grounded genre filmmaking and technical authenticity. Director William Eubank maintains a documented low activist profile focused on craft; co-writer and producers show no recurring pattern of identity-driven or social-justice-centered work.
Production
