The A-Team

For those of you too young to remember the 1980s staple show The A-Team (a population which includes yours truly), here’s a little flashback: a motley crew of war vets (and federal fugitives) team up to pull crackerjack heists all in the name of either their country or good samaritanism – kinda like The X-Men, but less realistic.  In said crew includes: Col. John ‘Hannibal’ Smith, the brains; Lt. Templeton ‘Faceman’ Peck, the…face – dur; B.A. Baracus, the brawn; and Murdock, flying ace and wildcard.  When their powers combine, they are THE A-TEAM!!!

     So taking the original film/series into consideration, we all know that you’re gonna enter this thing knowing that it’s just going to be pure summer fluff.  And that’s just what it is.  But that doesn’t mean it’s bad fluff – it’s not even neutral fluff.  Right here, we’ve got ourselves some pretty decent fluff.  As entirely implausible and/or impossible as some of the stunts may be, the story’s still interesting – even gripping at times – but then, much to my dismay, in comes more stunts…jus for the hell of it.  Yay Summer Blockbusters.  But, as mentioned, this is just a fluffy film, so it’s totally expected…as tiresome as it gets.

     Onward with probably one of the more important aspects of this film’s concept: the cast.  Can’t say I can complain here.  At all.  Everyone was well placed.  Liam Neeson was just as cool as ever, being that he’s now become the cool old actiony guy lately, and seriously, Bradley cooper as ‘Face’?  Can things get any better!?  As much as I love these guys, I’ll admit the real reason why I wanted to see this movie to begin with is because one of my favorite happy-go-lucky-accidental-actors Sharlto Copley (of District 9 fame) was cast as the mad flying ace – needless to say I wasn’t too disappointed.  Copley’s knack for accents and eccentricity definitely paid off – however, sometimes I felt that the script confused madness with pop culture savvy, making Murdock’s character slightly reminiscent to Batty from Ferngully.  As for B.A., many-a-fans seem to be a little distressed about their lack of Mr. T.  I, however, find UFC fighter Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson an apt choice.  Personally, I’m not familiar with Jackson’s athletic career, but he proved to be an acceptable actor – didn’t wear the Mohawk as righteously, but then again he wasn’t trying to be Mr. T, either.  But most of all, I was very impressed by the turn around villain *spoiler alert* Patrick Wilson.  Usually going for darker roles in more independent films (oh hey, Hard Candy), Wilson proves that he can just be a sleazy blockbuster jerk of a villain you could love to hate, and I can dig it.

     So, how does A-Team add up?  Well, I don’t think fans would be too disappointed, and being that this is a Summer Blockbuster, this film definitely has appeal to both sexes: plenty of actiony bits for the guys who just wanna see stuff get all blown up, and there are some gorgeous guys for all walks of females (I mean, Mad Men’s John Hamm even shows up…gah!).  Alas, the film’s strength remains its downfall, and it will simply remain fluff.

Final Grade: C+

“Because girls like guys who stand near flames!”