DVD Reviews

The A-Team

• Rating:
• Director: Joe Carnahan
• Starring: Bradley Cooper
• Details: US/117mins 12A

Those that found Michael Mann's recent adaptation of 80s action show Miami Vice too serious for their tastes should enjoy this unabashedly cheesy, but action heavy, big screen adaptation of that decade's other much loved TV show. Capturing the absurdist tone of the series perfectly, you get the impression talented director Joe Carnahan has made exactly the kind of film funding studio Fox wanted him to. Low on plot, character and smarts, but high on laughs, explosions and that elusive fun factor, this is a good time at the multiplex - nothing more, nothing less.
We first meet The A-Team in a Mexican desert, as both Face (Cooper) and Hannibal's (Neeson) lives are in imminent danger. Hannibal manages to escape, meeting fellow US Ranger B.A (Jackson) on the way to rescue Face. The lads then proceed to take out the bad guys in a typically extravagant fashion, before breaking out former pilot and mental patient Murdoch (Copley), to fly them to safety. Several years later and they're a tight, elite unit in Iraq, who are the first soldiers their commanding officer comes to when a dangerous job needs doing. When one such gig involving printing plates for $100 bills are stolen, the team are framed and sent to the slammer for ten years a piece.
Carnahan isn't a helmer who you'd instantly think of to make a family friendly action flick looking at his previous efforts - the gritty and brilliant Narc, and the more ostentatious Smokin' Aces. Both were extremely violent, visceral pieces of work, but the catch is The A-Team has infinitely more people being killed, but is somehow less violent. The tone is light and breezy, and the action hugely entertaining until a messy, incoherent final set-piece. In fairness, that is the only time he drops the ball, and there's an almost Last Boy Scout feel to proceedings before that - sans the acerbic use of curse words, of course.
Casting wise, Cooper's cocky Face and Patrick Wilson's smug CIA Operative are the pick of the bunch, with Jackson's BA never really given a chance to shine. Those that know the UFC fighter's riotous personality will be disappointed that he doesn't get a chance to run his mouth a bit more, but he's still genuinely inspired casting. Neeson struggles a bit as he's given the worst dialogue, and Copley just goes suitably nuts - bringing most of the laughs in the process.
It is, essentially, the movie many hoped it would be; extremely entertaining and very silly.

Review by Mike Sheridan