Summary

• Land Of Bad ties with L.A. Confidential for Russell Crowe’s highest Rotten Tomatoes audience score.
• Both films showcase strong Russell Crowe performances despite different genres.
• Critics favor L.A. Confidential over Land Of Bad, but both have equally high audience enjoyment.

Russell Crowe has starred in his fair share of thrillers, with his 2024 war movie, Land Of Bad, sharing a surprising connection with one of his best-known projects in the genre. Russell Crowe leads Land Of Bad’s cast as Reaper, a drone pilot tasked with guiding a new member, Sergeant JJ Kinney (Liam Hemsworth), to safety after their field mission in the Philippines goes wrong. William Eubank directed the film, which has been rated highly by audiences since its release in February. It’s this popular acclaim that creates a link to one of Russell Crowe’s most successful movies ever.

Russell Crowe is no stranger to box office and critical hits. Although Land Of Bad‘s theatrical performance was disappointing, the movie received generally positive reviews and has enjoyed a resurgence on Netflix. On the surface, this seems fairly unremarkable. However, the movie’s reputation with viewers is such that it shares a shocking record with a movie that is not just one of Russell Crowe’s best-known, but one of the most acclaimed releases of all time – in any genre.

Land Of Bad Has Tied With L.A. Confidential For Russell Crowe’s Highest Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score

Both Have Crowe’s Highest Audience Rating On RT.

L.A. Confidential is a 1997 movie starring Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey, and Danny DeVito. Crowe plays Bud White, a police detective who uncovers corruption within the LAPD while investigating local homicides. The film grossed over $100 million at the box office and has an impressive 99% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes – with the review aggregator recently rating L.A. Confidential as the greatest movie of all time. Interestingly, however, the movie also has a 94% audience approval rating – the same as Land Of Bad. This means that the two movies have the joint-highest audience approval ratings of all of Russell Crowe’s films.

L.A. Confidential
is available to stream on Apple TV+.

Both movies are in different sub-genres, with L.A. Confidential being a crime thriller and Land Of Bad being a war action thriller, but what both have in common, aside from ratings, is a strong Russell Crowe performance. Frank Scheck from The Hollywood Reporter said that Crowe “steals the show” as Reaper and of his performance in L.A. Confidential, Desson Howe of The Washington Post said that Crowe had a “unique and sexy toughness” in his portrayal of Bud. Russell Crowe’s performances in both films were praised by critics, but they had different opinions about the films collectively.

There’s Still A Huge Difference Between Land Of Bad & L.A. Confidential’s Popularity & Reviews

Generally, L.A. Confidential Has Had A Better Critical Reception Than Land Of Bad.

L.A. Confidential has the greatest critical acclaim of Crowe’s movies and was nominated for numerous Oscars. Meanwhile, Land of Bad has a 65% critics score on RT, a fraction of L.A. Confidential‘s 99% score. The movie was so popular, that an L.A. Confidential 2 pitch was put forward but was never made and, while they are both popular with audiences, critics preferred L.A. Confidential over Land Of Bad.

Critics prefer L.A. Confidential because it features a complex narrative with multiple characters working in a team to uncover corruption, unlike Land Of Bad, which focuses mainly on the teamwork between Reaper and Kinney that enables Kinney to get to safety. However, considering that they both have the same Rotten Tomatoes audience score, it’s obvious that both movies were thoroughly enjoyable, even if their critical reception wasn’t on par. This difference in scores shows that while critical acclaim varies, audience enjoyment can be equally high for both films.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes, Rotten Tomatoes, The Hollywood Reporter, Washington Post.