The A-Team was one of my favorite television series of the 1980’s. It was good, clean fun. Lots of action and easy to follow stories and some cool acting. I grew up on The A-Team and Knight Rider and while the reboot recent series of Knight Rider was feces, the new A-Team movie was surprisingly good. It’s well-cast and full of comedy and action. It honors the memory of the television show while carving a new path with awesome action scenes and some really nifty CG effects. The cast is led by a loose Liam Neeson, having a hoot as the team leader as John “Hannibal” Smith. Neeson has taken on some interesting roles in recent years and was also effective in the riveting right-wing revenge fantasy Taken, where he took out the trash, to get his daughter back after she is kidnapped in Paris.
The A-Team is about four soldiers in Iraq who are framed for a crime they didn’t commit involving plates used to make 100 dollar bills. The plates go missing and their commanding officer is killed in a nasty explosion. The A-Team are framed for the crime and go on the run, pursued by a mysterious operative and a very hot Jessica Biel. Besides Neeson, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson of MMA fame makes for an appealing BA Baracus. He does a decent Mr T impersonation and generally holds his own. Bradley Cooper oozes smarm and smirks like a dude leaving the Playboy Mansion after sunset, but generally does a good job. He can flex and smirk with the best of them, but during a few quieter scenes with Biel’s character he’s able to switch it off and do a credible job as he deals with the regret of letting her get away. The real star though isn’t well known at all. Sharlto Copley is a South African actor who was in the science fiction smash District 9 and he steals every scene here as Murdock. Wild-eyed and determined to drive BA nuts, he is a force to be reckoned with.
Sadly, The A-Team has been a box office disappointment so far as audiences seem to favor the feel-good fakery of a movie about the son of a rich Hollywood actor learning kung fu to defeat Asian baddies before the end of recess for stealing his woman….and more importantly, his fruit roll ups. Give me macho humor, explosions, and loud gun battles any day of the week. The A-Team is one of the nicest surprises of the summer so far, an explosive, loud rocking good time. It’s not a perfect movie, the last 40 minutes or so are overlong, overwrought, and overly serious, with one contrived plot twist too many, but overall, it’s a blast. Get out of the heat and see it now. I pity the fool who doesn’t go out to the multiplex to see The A-Team !
Grade: B+
Loading ...