Starring MMA Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson in his first movie role as B.A., an unbelievably built Bradley Cooper (The Hangover) as charming rascal Face, Sharlto Copley (District 9) as the chaotically insane Murdock and the apple of Ireland’s eye Liam Neeson as the cigar-smoking, leader of the pack Hannibal. Together they are (queue the music) The. A. Team. Sticking with the original storyline the A-Team are war vets (this time from Iraq) seeking redemption after being double crossed, framed and convicted for a crime they didn’t commit, sure what else would they be doing?
For anybody who watched the original A-Team and genuinely loved and appreciated the cheese, you will love this film. The concept, the story line, the script, the characters – all cheese. There is no escape. The movie has everything a good episode of this classic show could offer. A covert operation, a betrayal, a twist, another twist, explosions, awesome one liners, plenty of classic “I love it when a plan comes together” moments and the token hot chick. It’s everything you want from the A-Team and the best part is it leaves obvious room for a sequel. Director Joe Carnahan really embraced the essence of the 1980s drama, the kind of show where the goodies can fall from a 20 story building with 4 machine guns firing at them and yet remain unscathed.
The story line moves quickly and is jam packed with crazy, kamikaze missions. But the CGI in the second half of the movie is surprisingly dodgy for such a big budget film. It feels and looks like it lego bricks tumbling around as the arctic containers explode on the docks. Carnahan relies on skating the coat tails of the show’s reputation a bit with running themes like B.A’s mohawk, Hannibal’s cigars, Face’s charm with the ladies and Murdock’s twitchy talent as a pilot. But isn’t that part of the appeal of a big screen remake, it is a remake afterall? Allow yourself to fall into the general mayhem created by this foursome of loveable rogues and pity the fool who doesn’t.
Here’s the trailer:
