TITLE: The A-Team
STARRING: Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Sharlto Copley, Jessica Biel, Patrick Wilson
DIRECTOR: Joe Carnahan
STUDIO: 20th Century Fox
RATED: PG-13
RUN TIME: 117 min
RELEASED: June 11, 2010

By Seth Miller
Staff Writer, Part-Time Ninja

This is one summer movie that I was not looking forward to. It was based on a TV show from the ‘80s that I wasn’t a fan of and the trailers made it look like a dumb action film that had nothing fun about it and would suck the life out of me while I watched. After seeing it, I still think it is a dumb action film but it was pretty entertaining.

The movie is an origin story of how Hannibal (Neeson), Face (Cooper), B.A. (Jackson), and Murdock (Copley) get framed for a crime they didn’t commit and escape from prison on a mission to clear their names. That’s all that needed to be there in terms of a plot, but the filmmakers felt the need to add a relationship between Face and the soldier assigned to track him down (Biel) that really slows the movie down. Also, they turn B.A. into pacifist in the middle of the movie for no real reason. It was incredibly pointless.

Despite these flaws, the movie is a fun summer action film that can suspend your disbelief and enjoy watching. Generally, I’m not a fan of dumb action movies that come out every summer. It’s not that I don’t like action movies, but usually these movies have to rely on the action and the interaction between the stars to keep the audience interested.  Recently, these movies have had dull action and the interaction between actors makes me want jab a straw in my ears so I don’t have to hear their dialog.  But this movie has action that does a good job and a cast that sells the insanity that is happening on the screen.

The cast seems to have fun with one another and have a pretty good rapport that drives the movie. The actors portraying the A-Team fill their roles out nicely and the movie’s villain Lynch (Wilson) is pretty funny while being a viable threat to our heroes. The action in this film is about as unrealistic as possible and keeps getting bigger right up until the end; but it is never boring.

This film is definitely not for those that like their films to have some depth to it; but it is the perfect summer distraction for those that want to go the theater and shut their brains down for 2 hours.

RATING: 8/10

Front page photo and interior stills from RottenTomatoes.com.
Click here to read Mr. T’s thoughts on the film.

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