The A Team (20th Century Fox)
A Is For Action Not Acting
Some movies are made to be action packed adventures and nothing else. They dont worry about the finer points of acting or of the nuances of script plots. They just go for the visual and the adrenaline rush. Such a film is The A Team, a re-imagining of the George Peppard led TV series.
The time of the film is the present and all the familiar faces are present and accounted for. There is Colonel Hannibal Smith (Liam Neeson), Face (Bradley Cooper), B A Baracus (Quinton Rampage Jackson) and Murdock (Sharlto Copley). These four make up the A Team.
The four guys are members of the military who are given a covert assignment by their superior General Morrison (Gerald McCraney). The CIA is also involved in the person of a man named Lynch (Patrick Wilson). When the assignment goes bad all four men are tried and sentenced to prison terms. They escape and work on getting their lives and their reputations back.
Nothing in the plot holds up. It is all just fun and games and cant be taken seriously. The action sequences are another matter. They are rip-roaring fun and the actors play their roles in these sequences with exuberance.
Neeson is a little too low key for his role as the leader, but Cooper shows charm and teeth as Face. Jackson isnt Mr. T but he does have fun with the role of BA, and Copley finds the off kilter sides of Murdocks personality.
Wilson is the treacherous acting Lynch and he adds a chill to the entire proceedings. Then there is Jessica Biehl who plays an ex-girlfriend of Face. Biehl shows as much personality as a zombie. She walks through the role without making a ripple of effect. She pretty much blends into the background and the sooner she is forgotten in this role the better off her career will be.
The film is rated PG-13 for violence and profanity.
The A Team is the kind of movie in which you put your mind to sleep and let the visuals take control. Do not try to make any sense of the plot or of the characters. Just take them for how they are presented and enjoy the little bits of personality they do display.
The A Team is not a great movie in any sense of the word but if you are just looking for action then you will have a good time. Judge it for what it is intended to be and not in comparison with movies that focus on plot and acting.
I scored The A Team an actionable 6 out of 10.
