Reviews > Movie Reviews > The A-Team…
The A-Team Review
The A-Team looks suspiciously like the B-Team in this belated big screen resurrection of the popular 1980s TV series.
Not that Liam Neeson is anything to sneeze at, stepping into to George Peppard’s combat boots as Colonel Hannibal Smith, and I’ve got no beef with Bradley Cooper, either, who is emerging as a movie star in his own right after The Hangover and, uh, All About Steve. (He’s playing Face.) But how do you replace Mr T?
Not with WWF star Rampage Jackson, at any rate. Yeah, he’s big and he’s black, but he has next to no charisma – which is probably why the role seems to have been cut to the bone here.
Cast details
-
Liam Neeson
Born: 07 Jun 1952
Ballymena, Co. Antrim, Northern IrelandTop rated films View all Batman Begins - Blu-ray (2005) 
Schindler's List (1993) 
District 9 discovery Sharlto Copley is also disappointing in a much flashier part, the certifiable pilot, “Howling Mad” Murdock. Copley plays wacky by letting his accent roam freely all over the British Commonwealth, but it seems like a desperate ploy to breathe some life into one-liners that should have been buried at birth. (Murdock to BA after he almost falls out of the chopper: “I know you’re airborne rangers, but that was ridiculous.” Boom-boom!)
Directed and cowritten by Joe Carnahan (Narc; Smokin Aces) the movie updates the theatre of war, so that the disgraced Vietnam veterans now come with Desert Storm credentials, but he’s stuck with the same slightly campy machismo mayhem that clicked with TV audiences.
In keeping with Mr T’s pacifist leanings and the TV show’s quaint refusal to show even bad guys biting the dust, BA struggles with his conscience before getting his hands dirty with Hannibal’s rogue Special Forces unit.
It begins rather clumsily in Mexico, where one of Murdock’s scrapes brings the four together in a bullet-spewing, rocket-blazing run-in with a corrupt Generalissimo - the action movie’s version of a meet-cute.
Several years later the quartet is back on active duty in Iraq, mounting a covert op to seize currency plates Saddam has been using to print US banknotes. When this scheme goes awry Hannibal and his honchos wind up behind bars, by which time we understand their moral superiority to the heavily implicated “Black Forest” private security firm, a mercenary outfit obviously modeled on Blackwater.
Jessica Biel and Bradley Cooper
By now I should probably have mentioned that Jessica Biel is in this too – you need to know this, but someone might have tipped off the screenwriters, who seem to have been caught completely unawares.
This movie is a mess, a randomized string of splashy, death-defying set-pieces interspersed with unfunny quips and globe trotting antics (shot in Canada). In the most imaginative stunt, the A-Team flies a tank 2500 feet over Germany. Yes, you read that right: a tank. In another, the port of Los Angeles goes up like Pearl Harbor.
More of that kind of lunacy might have brought me on board, or at least overboard, which is where the movie surely has to go. But the set pieces tend to be as lugubrious as they are ludicrous - Carnahan moves heavy artillery around like tiddlywinks, except that these tiddlywinks land with a very dull thud.
It’s dumb fun - you can’t say it isn’t. But The Losers was funner, and probably dumber too, if that’s what rocks your boat.
The A-Team Reviews
loading...
Most popular articles
Let's get social
For up-to-the-minute competitions, interviews, news and reviews - follow LOVEFiLM on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
Sign up to our free newsletter
Get a weekly dose of love film
Our weekly newsletter is packed full of news, reviews and opinions, and handily delivered straight to your inbox.
News, Reviews & Interviews
-
After a long absence, The Muppet are back with plenty of singing, dancing, and nostalgia. Read more
-
Find out what's in store on our streaming service with the first edition of LOVEFiLM Instant Presents... Read more
-
Nicolas Cage talks about returning as Ghost Rider... Read more
-
Supported by strong performances from Kristin Scott Thomas and Ethan Hawke, The Woman in the Fifth is ultimately let down by its plot. Read more
Want to watch something right now?
Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | EULA | Affiliates | Jobs | Inside LOVEFiLM Blog | About Us | Contact Us
International sites UK DK DE SE NO
LOVEFiLM, the LOVEFiLM logo and all other LOVEFiLM product or service names are trade marks of LOVEFiLM International Ltd. or its affiliates.
© 2012 LOVEFiLM UK Ltd. or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
-
- Formats
- DVD
- Blu-ray
- HD DVD
- Cinema
- LOVEFiLM Instant
- Hotlists
- New releases
- Just added
- Coming soon
- Most popular
- Film or TV
- Film & Features
- Television
-
- DVD Charts
- UK weekly rental chart
- All time top 250
- BFI top 100
- AFI top 100
- Most wanted Blu-rays
- TV weekly rental chart
- The Collection Section
- Celebrity collections
- Unofficial collections
- User collections
-
- Hotlists
- New releases
- Coming soon
-
- Watch Online
- With package
- Pay Per View
- Free
- Hotlists
- New releases
- Just added
- Film or TV
- Film & Features
- Television
- LOVEFiLM on TV
- LOVEFiLM direct to your TV
- Connect your PC to your TV