Movie Review #39

Movie Review #39

The A-team (2010) Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper Directed by Joe Carnahan

This is going to be a bad summer. I actually wasn’t worried when I heard Joe Carnahan (Smokin Aces and Pride and Glory) was directing The A-team one of my all time favorite childhood TV shows after all the characters are over the top and easy to recreate, the stories are funny and full of action which is great for a summer movie, and the director of Smokin Aces 2 wouldn’t dare go way over the top and spoil the party right?…err right?

The A-team is a bit of prequel to the TV series of the 80’s. Col. John “Hannibal” Smith (played shakily by a usually better Liam Neeson) shows up at the very beginning of the film to save his buddy Lt “Face” Peck (played pretty badly by Bradley Cooper) from a hairy situation. Along the way they have a chance encounter (which is lazy writing btw) with Cpl. B.A. Baracus (played well by newcomer and UFC guy Rampage Jackson). After escaping that obstacle with the help of a crazy pilot (Murdock played fair by Sharlto Copley…who I thought would be better), the team forms together and conducts missions in Afghanistan. After a set up job by a weasely CIA guy (Lynch played annoyingly by Patrick Wilson) they are forced to go on the run and clear their names. Jessica Biel shows up along the way (though nobody seems to know what her job is and yet she can gain access into any building and summon vehicles and weapons at her whim???). The film has some nice moments…but I certainly hoped it would be better. It is too over the top for its own good, and I will say that if the chemistry of the cast was right I would go easier on the goofy story (which has Face showing up Hannibal at one point…that’s a no no)…but the cast didn’t quite work together. I thought it was a slam dunk and I ignored the bad trailers leading up to the film…but it did come up short for me. Worth watching but my thought is you will agree with me when it’s over.

(The Shawshank Scale 1-10) It just didn’t quite work right…It warrants a 6.0 (adding the summer break I give action flicks) but probably wasn’t that good. My fear is a sequel is out since America didn’t exactly flock to the theaters to see (won’t break 100 million it looks like).

Food For Thought: Neeson has an interesting thriller coming out later this year called The Next Three Days which co stars Russell Crowe and is written and directed by Paul Haggis. Cooper has a thriller called The Dark Fields and of course The Hangover 2 both set for a 2011 release. Last but not least Jessica Biel has funny political comedy coming out later this year called Nailed…and it’s about a lady with a nail stuck in her head…yeah…political comedy…ok then.