Plan Comes Together For Entertaining Action of ‘The A-Team’

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Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – “Overkill is underrated.” So says Col. Hannibal Smith (Liam Neeson) near the end of Joe Carnahan’s “The A-Team” and it clearly was the operating principle for not just the characters but the entire production. With its tongue firmly in its steroid-induced cheek, “The A-Team” is not designed to break any rules or change the action world, merely to offer summer entertainment for two hours and it does precisely that.

I remember many summer weekends from my youth spent in air-conditioned multiplexes watching movies that were conceived and produced to do nothing more than entertain people angry about working during the most beautiful days of the year and kids who needed a break from their outdoor activity. This summer has been incredibly light on films that feel like honest entertainment instead of products of a soulless moneymaking machine. It seems like it used to be easier to check out of reality for a few hours, eat some popcorn, and leave with a smile.

Is “The A-Team” short on character? Of course, and it should be. Too many films like this one have been sunk by producers trying to over-think a property that exists to do nothing more than present cleverly designed and well-executed action. Carnahan, his talented production team, and most of his cast have worked together to create an old-fashioned summer action movie. It’s nowhere near an “A,” but it easily deserves a passing grade.

Bradley Cooper as Templeton "Face" Peck; UFC light heavyweight Quinton "Rampage" Jackson as B.A. Baracas; Sharlto Copley as H.M."Howling Mad" Murdock; and Liam Neeson as Col Hannibal Smith.
Photo credit: Fox

The long credits sequence of “The A-Team” serves as origin story for how the most notorious team-for-hire came together in the first place. Near the Mexico-U.S. border, Smith is handcuffed in the custody of a few corrupt Mexican cops who nearly feed him to their dogs. After his clever escape, Hannibal crosses paths with the super-strong Bosco ‘B.A.’ Baracus (Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson) and the two find unity through their Ranger tattoos before going on to rescue the charming-but-deadly “Face” (Bradley Cooper) from the clutches of a Mexican bad guy. The newly-formed trio hires a possibly insane pilot named Murdock (Sharlto Copley) and “The A-Team” is born.

Flash forward almost a decade and the team has run hundreds of missions for hire. They happen to be in Iraq as the U.S. presence there is being withdrawn and are assigned the task of rescuing some counterfeiting plates before they’re shuttled out of Baghdad. The assignment goes horribly awry and the team are stripped of their rank and sent to jail for undertaking a mission that no one can prove they were ever given.

Of course, no four walls can stop these men from clearing their names and finding the people responsible for burning them in the first place. Jessica Biel appears as the only government agent who believes in the team’s innocence and Patrick Wilson steals a few scenes as a C.I.A. agent who practically screams “eventual bad guy” from the minute he’s on-screen.

Face (Bradley Cooper), Murdock (Sharlto Copley), Hannibal (Liam Neeson) and B.A.(Quinton "Rampage" Jackson) make sure their plan comes together.
Photo credit: Fox

There’s not a single subtle moment in “The A-Team.” It’s not a character-driven film. It’s a movie in which a tank falls from a plane and is basically “flown” to the ground via its own firepower. The entire project is a tongue-in-cheek, adrenalin-pumping, ridiculous slice of testosterone-filled lunacy and it works on that level more often than it does not. By not even attempting significant character development, Carnahan and his team have created a live-action cartoon for adults. To some, that might sound like torture, but if one believes that a film should be judged by what it sets out to do — a critical theory under which I’ve always operated — then “The A-Team” thoroughly works as popcorn entertainment.

As for the cast, Bradley Cooper finally displays the screen charisma that agents and producers have clearly thought he’s had for years but that has always felt kind of muted. With none of the lazy traps he sometimes falls into, he’s perfectly cast, bringing a suave action style to the film that will be more underrated than it deserves. He’s great.

Neeson and Wilson also work in every one of their scenes while Copley gets a few great moments despite an ever-fluctuating accent. On the other hand, Jackson mumbles far more than is necessary and Biel is just horrendously miscast. She’s a beautiful woman but she’s never once believable in an action context. The film simply drags a bit every time she’s around because she feels so off with the rhythm of the rest of it. Perhaps no actress could have navigated the male-heavy world of “The A-Team” and played with the alpha males but she was certainly the wrong choice.

A few tightly conceived and well-executed action sequences, a couple very solid genre performances, a funny script, and plenty of bang for the buck make “The A-Team” a big budget action movie that’s actually entertaining. After a horrible May at the movies that could go down as the worst ever, it’s finally starting to feel like summer.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com