Film - The A- Team

by Richard Aindow
Genre: Action

Starring: Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Sharlto Copley

Directed by: Joe Carnahan

Origin: USA

Running Time: 117 minutes

Rating: M

Score: 3.5 out of 5

I love it when a plan comes together; who doesn’t? The importance of proper preparation was wisdom imparted to me at an early age and from an unlikely source: a cigar-smoking Hollywood hero who could fire off a thousand bullets in a row without causing injury and still win. For this was Saturday evening in the 1980s, and I loved The A-Team.

Well-laid schemes are crucial, of course, but if the 2010 remake of my childhood favourite is an unusual choice for WildTomato it is because of a lack of that very quality – as the first review target falls through at the last minute it is with trepidation I approach a new mission.

For those that didn’t watch the iconic series, the premise of the A-Team is not a tough one, although that didn’t stop the opening credits explaining it to us every week: “In 1972 a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire… the A-Team.”

Done.

This movie, however, follows the trend for origin movies such as The Dark Knight and Star Trek. Brought up to date with some hip hop and a modern-day Iraq, it shows Hannibal assembling his team by chance on a mission to Mexico and then, eight years later, watches them framed for the crime they didn’t commit – intercepting one billion dollars of fake greenbacks and the plates that made them. Time for some breakout and pay back, naturally.

The Team themselves are a pretty good facsimile of the original. Liam Neeson almost carries off the swagger of George Peppard as Hannibal (although George Clooney would have been perfect). Bradley Cooper as Face is as pretty as he was in The Hangover. Ironically Ultimate Fighter turned actor Quinton Jackson is the weak link as strong man B.A. Baracus – unless it is only me that couldn’t tell what he was saying half the time. Annunciate, my friend. Following his breakout role in District 9 it is, however, Sharlto Copley who steals every scene and most of the laughs as “Howling Mad” Murdock. Considering the context this is a really good performance.

But this isn’t high art so let’s boil it down quickly. The A-Team is fun. The A-Team looks great. And for the first three quarters of the film (physics aside) the plot isn’t too ridiculous. Okay, so the ending is a total farce (not in a French way) and the sequel was in development before the boys have even wrapped this one up but, truth be told, this is the A-Team not Schindler’s List. Pity the fool who doesn’t enjoy a little entertainment from time to time.