The A-Team

Anyone who was with me in a theater when the trailer for this movie came on can attest to the fact that I was AMPED for this movie. It defined summer movies for me, without the female sex appeal. It looked funny, goofy, ridiculous, overblown and 100% pure octane AWESOME! The trailer was 150 seconds of pure summer movie glee and I was buying into every damn second of it. A tank falling out of the sky? Why the hell not! Bradley Cooper in all of his smug glory mixed with Liam Neeson and all of his badassery? Bring it on!! I do not care about complaints that it would not be like the television show or that the movie looked too ridiculous. I had a "Screw you" attitude towards anyone who tried to talk me out of my excitement. My excitement would not be quelled! I was so excited I went to a midnight screening! However, with such expectations could it possibly live up? Should I stop ending my first paragraphs with a leading question meant to force you to read on?

The A-Team is a team of Army Rangers who do missions together until they commit some crime and are forced to live outside of the law to avoid jail. The idea is pretty basic, but here is an origin story. Hannibal(Neeson) is a man being tortured and left for dead, but he is left unsupervised which is not good, because Hannibal is a grade A bad ass and the opening scene proves it. He rushes out of his jam to head to save his fellow ranger Templeton "Face" Peck(Cooper) who is in a jam because he bedded the wrong woman. On his way to save Face, Hannibal runs into a big black man with an attitude problem, B.A.(Quinton Jackson), who also happen to be a ranger, so he enlists his help and after the rescue, the 3 men find Murdock(Sharlto Copley) who is a helicopter pilot for the Rangers who helps them escape. Thus forms our A-Team. Cut to a few years later, the team has been in the middle east helping us win the war, and they are on their way out when they get one more mission to stop some counterfeiting. Something goes wrong and they are accused, tried and convicted of a few crimes. They break out of jail and attempt to follow, Lynch(Patirck Wilson) to figure out what happened, all while being chased by Charisa Sosa(Jessica Biel), a C.I.A agent with a past that involved Face.

Jessica Biel's character has a line in this movie that sums it up pretty well. In describing the team she says "And they specialize in the ridiculous." The A-Team specializes in the ridiculous, much to the delight of this movie fan. The wonderful opening sequence involves Liam Neeson in the shadows taking off handcuffs and cuffing two dogs together, Neeson shooting B.A in the shoulder and features Cooper rolling down a hill in a bunch of tires. From there the movie just gets crazier. The helicopter rescues is thrilling, but also with a sense of humor, which kind of also describes the movie. Everyone involved knows everything they are doing is ridiculous, but they all have this kind of childlike joy attached to their faces that they get "it." They know they are involved in shenanigans and it allows us to just sit back and enjoy it.

Cooper is clearly having all kinds of fun playing up how smug he can be, but in this movie, as opposed to so many others, his smugness is likability charming. He is also shirtless for roughly 50% of his screen time which does not hurt his likability. The only one who might be having more fun is Copley. Fresh off of his turn in the surprisingly successful District 9, Copley is a relative newcomer, but if he throws himself into every role like he has done in this movie, he is going to be a strong character actor for a long time. His crazy Murdock is a funny interesting character study. He has great chemistry with all of the other actors and he understands perfectly what kind of movie this is. Neeson continues his strong grief fueled work. He is a hard working actor working through tremendous grief from the death of his wife, but in this movie he lets loose a bit. He has that edge from Taken, but he lightens up. He looks so much like the television version of his character and he gruffly delivers all of the great lines and he makes a perfect leader. The biggest concern was, of course, Quinton Jackson filling in for Mr. T. Jackson is not an actor, but he fills in for Mr. T pretty well. His line delivery is not as goofy as Mr. T, but He is a tough dude and the camera likes him. He could probably turn into a decent action star if he wants.

Joe Carnahan, a director whose career trajectory has been all over the place, wrote and directed the wonderfully violent Smokin' Aces, so there is not doubt the guy knows how to shoot violence. What he also knows how to do is add a lightness of touch. He does not force anything. He is a good field general and knows how to shoot an action sequence. The climatic action sequence is a dazzling spectacle that required a lot of explosions, multiple cameras, a few fights and a slight of hand, in the scene and in the execution of said scene and Carnahan does not let it overpower him. He knows how much of everything he wants and because of that the climax is wonderfully executed and plays very well. Things blow up the way we want them to, people get punched in the face, guns are unloaded and cars driven just the way an action sequence should go.

But, if everything else had sucked, the movie would have been worth it for a sequence where they fly a tank. Yes, they fly a tank. They are in a plane, that get shot down, but they all get in the tank and as they are dropping in a parachuted tank, the parachute gets damaged and to save themselves and to shoot down the planes, Cooper goes to the gun of the tank and starts shooting!! A tank is falling out of the sky and he starts shooting planes, then, in order to crash into water, Cooper has to shoot the cannon in different directions so the tank moves with the force of the cannon. Yes, the manipulate a falling TANK so they can crash land in a nicer spot!! Of course, it is stupid, but it is such glorious fun and Cooper plays it so perfectly that all you can do is laugh and enjoy watching a tank being flown.

The movie fills in gaps from the show like why B.A hates flying and why he has such hatred for Murdock, and there is a wonderful scene after the credits which gives the television show fans something to get giddy over, but it also offers enough for people who just like fun movies. Sure, it is full of holes and at times the dialog and the plot are a little ridiculous and I wish Patrick Wilson had more to do, but who cares when everyone was having such a damn good time! No one is going to confuse this movie with great cinema, but in the middle of summer, I just want some fun and The A-Team has fun in almost every scene.

Final Grade: B+