The A-Team

Director: Joe Carnahan
Cast: Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Sharlto Copley and Jessica Biel
Releasing in cinemas: 10 June 2010
Rated: MA 15+

Once more Hollywood delves into the treasure chest of old TV shows to play ‘dress-ups’ with some classic material. This approach has produced some decent stuff – the original Mission Impossible and Charlie’s Angels movies (not the diabolical sequels) for example. More often than not though, it ends up being a train wreck. You only have to think of the awful movies based on TV shows like The Mod Squad and The Avengers to realise this is a cinematic minefield. Luckily however, director Joe Carnahan treads lightly and mostly avoids the pitfalls in his all-action flick, The A-Team.

Like so many recent movies, this isn’t so much a movie based on the TV series itself (in which the “team” are basically mercenaries for hire) but on the pilot episode. Yes, it’s another prequel-style film that generally plays things pretty safely in order to provide maximum potential for a sequel or three down the track.

That said, there’s a lot to like here. From Liam Neeson’s sharp-as-a-tack commander, to the thrilling set-piece action sequences and the on-screen pairing of the smokin’ hot Jessica Biel and Bradley Cooper, this film delivers plenty of entertainment value. Of course, if you’re seeking other values – like subtlety or storytelling logic – you’ll need to look elsewhere. But as a big, dumb action movie, The A-Team is a winner.

The film opens with a prologue that explains in short order how the team came together. Cut to 10 years later and they’re deployed in Iraq as a special ops unit. Col. “Hannibal” Smith (Neeson) is always the man with the plan, and seems to have built something of a reputation for himself. His compadres – Lt. “Faceman” Peck (Cooper), B.A. Barracus (Quinton “Rampage” Jackson) and “Howling Mad” Murdock (Sharlto Copely) – put his elaborate schemes into operation.

With American forces scaling down in Iraq, there’s wind of a major operation by Sadaam loyalists to smuggle a set of engraving plates for counterfeit US currency out of Baghdad. Seems like a perfect job for the A-Team. However, the situation has also come to the attention of the Defense Department, which sends Capt. Charisa Sosa (Biel) – who happens to be Face’s ex-girlfriend – to take control. Simultaneously however, a notorious ‘black ops’ unit led by the nasty Pike (Brad Bloom) is tapped to carry out the mission. After some pleading with local commander Gen. Morrison (Gerald McRaney), the A-Team get the gig. However, they’re caught in a vicious game of double-cross which sees them court-martialled and thrown in the brig. Hah – as if that’s going to stop them.

Fans of the TV show will recall that the A-Team’s ongoing quest was to prove that they were innocent of that “crime they didn’t commit” and restore their good name. So it is here, with the quest to find who was behind the Baghdad debacle and thus prove that they weren’t the bad guys, underlying the film. What propels it forward however is the plentiful action. Cars, helicopters, flying boats, ships, planes and tanks all get a guernsey here; and you’d think Carnahan might have shares in a glass repair business, with countless panes being shattered in the course of the movie.

Carnahan keeps the action pumping along, and even finds time to put in an appearance as a military judge. The script from III won’t tax your grey matter, but keeps things interesting nonetheless (even if the identity of the shadowy figure behind the plot is revealed half way through).

Liam Neeson gives a rather lighter performance than we’re used to from him as Hannibal, but still manages to give the character a depth that’s perhaps not warranted by the script. Bradley Cooper does a good job as his number 1 side-kick Face, clearly relishing the chance to exude some cheeky charm and indulge in a little comedy along the way. BBB is understandably a bit subdued as B.A.; I mean, compared with the larger-than-life Mr T, anyone would seem subdued. Similarly, Sharlto Copley is arguably just not looney enough as Murdock to make the role fully his own.

Among the supporting players, Jessica Biel makes every post a winner as Sosa; but Brad Bloom is, for mine, too white-bread to be a really effective villain in the role of Pike.

The A-Team is one of those archetypal “summer” movies that you can go into and happily put your brain in neutral for 2 hours or so. Yes, it’s loud, flashy and generally quite shallow, but sometimes that can be a good thing. Certainly it’s not Oscar bait, but as movies based on TV series go, it’s not half bad.

David Edwards