Release Date – 6/11/2010
Colonel Hannibal Smith and his longtime Army Ranger partner Face are in some trouble in Mexico. They’re being held captive and tortured. When Hannibal breaks free, he runs into another Army Ranger by the name of B.A. Baracus and enlists his help to save Face. Once all is said and done, they go to find the best helicopter pilot in the Army Rangers, an insane mofo by the name of Murdock, to help them escape Mexico. This is how the A-Team is formed. After a successful mission, they decide to stick together for an “off the books” secret mission given to them by the CIA. Apparently it was a setup, and the A-Team gets framed. Now they have to break out of prison and clear their names in order to save their reputation and find out what really happened. This movie is the GI Joe of this summer. Its completely over the top with tons of action and comedy mixed together. It’s a fun ride but nothing too spectacular. Your typical summer action movie.
I like the casting and the setup for this movie. The A-Team is broken up into 2 groups. Hannibal (Liam Neeson) and Face (Bradley Cooper) are longtime partners and have a history. We don’t know everything they’ve been through but we know they are buddies and have each other’s backs. They have good chemistry together, almost like a father/son relationship. Neeson was WAY over the top in this. Some terrible acting but I guess he was portraying the old TV character to a certain extent. Cooper was his usual cocky self and had some good lines interacting with Hannibal. The next group brought the comedy. Murdock (Sharlto Copley) and Baracus (Quinton RAMPAGE Jackson) had some hilarious scenes together. They were cracking me up. Copley is probably only known for his awesome performance in District 9 but I would say chalk another one up for him. He’s truly a funny dude. And UFC fighter Rampage Jackson did really well for his first big role. Mr. T should be proud. Although there was a silly plot point about BA not wanting to hurt people that could have totally been cut out. Rounding out the cast were Jessica Biel as a pointless love interest for Face, who tries being badass but Come On, she’s Jessica Biel. And Patrick Wilson as a really annoying CIA agent. I hated his character.
I never watched a single episode of the TV show from the 80s but I know besides the general setup, they got rid of most of that story. The A Team never killed anyone in the old series and they traveled around in their van, hiding from the government. While they do have BA’s famous van, it lasts all of about 10 minutes before it gets destroyed. And this A-Team kills a lot of people. Its just madness from beginning to end. Wild setups to insane action scenes. Director Joe Carnahan also did Smokin’ Aces which is just ridiculous action too. So the guy likes to go buck wild with his action. I don’t blame him. The summer always needs a little over the top action. Prince of Persia sure didn’t work but I think the A-Team does to a certain extent. Its not totally turn your brain off action. It’s a decent and believable story with some unbelievable action scenes (manning a tank attached to a parachute falling from an exploding plane). I’d definitely give it another watch though.
IMDB – 7.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 51%
Movie Wiseguys – 7/10