Movie Review The A-Team

The A-Team Well. What can one say, but Hannibal Smith? If you don’t remember the old TV show of the same name, you missed out. It was terrible, but highly entertaining.
The movie version manages to lose most of the cheesy crap, and retain everything that was fun about the series. Liam Neeson reprises the role of John “Hannibal” Smith (George Peppard), the renegade Army Ranger Colonel who “loves it when a plan comes together.” Bradley Cooper plays Templeton “Faceman” Peck (Dirk Benedict), the great-looking, “leave ‘em begging for more” con-man, facilitator. He’s been in about a million movies, and I don’t think I’ve seen any of them. The Hangover would be the most notable, which doesn’t say much for his career. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson plays BA Baracus, originally played by the irrepressible Mr. T. Sharlto Copely plays “Howling Mad” Murdock (Dwight Shultz). Copely was the lead in District 9, which was a great movie about stranded extra-terrestrials and apartheid in South Africa. And he was great in it. In this one, he uses about 9 accents, all of them spot on, including his South African, probably because he’s from South Africa. He is great as Murdock, who was always my favorite character. I got a kick out of the fact that every week the Team had to break Murdock out of a different asylum somewhere.
Jessica Biel rounds out the names, and as usual, she is Hot. I mean . . . damn. So hot in fact, that Nita gave me permission to say so. She plays some kind of DOD special agent, and an ex-flame of Face’s. Of course, all females are ex flames of Face’s.
When it comes down to it, who cares about the plot? There is one, and it is suitably convoluted, with lots of situations no one could possible escape from or overcome, but the A-Team is up for it. Even with BA unconscious half the time because he is afraid to fly. Everything about the plot is improbable, which is exactly what the A-Team is about. The ridiculous. It is something about Iraq, and counterfeiting, and engraving plates, and blah, blah, blah.
It is smart and funny and full-throttle action, with great special effects, and even greater plans, escapes, and strategy’s, and counter-strategy’s. Did I say Improbable? Make that ludicrous. But it works. The actors are all spot on for their characters, and the writing is playful enough to make us forget our troubles for a couple hours. What more could we want?
It is rated PG-13. There is a little profanity, but not much. The only sex comes from Biel’s blouse being unbuttoned halfway down, and the only violence is . . . well, it’s wall-to-wall violence of the non-emotionally scarring kind. Just good fun, eh? I liked it mucho-a-lot, and Nita quite enjoyed it as well. If you go not expecting anything but a MacGyver-esque popcorn movie, you will not be disappointed.