The A-Team

“The A-Team,” the 2010 adaptation of the famous television show from the ‘80s, is best compared to another 2010 film, “The Losers.” Both films are silly, over-the-top, and include action scenes that are hilarious, and even though the plots may be incomprehensible at times, they still give you one enjoyable time.

The film was directed by Joe Carnahan, who previously directed the wild action film, “Smokin’ Aces,” which also had somewhat of a dirty plot, but a lot of great action scenes to make up for it.

The film is about a group of Army Rangers who first met up in Iraq. The team includes Colonel Hannibal Smith (Liam Neeson), Lieutenant Templeton “Faceman” Peck (Bradley Cooper), B.A. Baracus (Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson), and Murdock (Sharlto Copley).

After becoming the first people to call for dangerous missions, they are told about a set of bars used in printing American money that are now in enemy hands. They are also specifically told not to go on this mission, but as you can guess, they go anyway.

After the mission is complete, their commander, General Morrison, played by Gerald McRaney, is killed in a strange explosion. They are then believed to have been helping the man who took the bars, a Black-Ops agent named Pike, played by Brian Bloom.

The team is sent to four separate maximum-security prisons after being dishonorably discharged from the service, but they are not there long before they are helped in their escape by a CIA agent, Lynch, played by Patrick Wilson. Now the team must recover the bars and prove themselves innocent in order to clear their names.

The highlight of “The A-Team” is its insanely imaginative, over-the-top action scenes. The action of this film plays out more so for the comedy it has rather than believability. If you try to take it too seriously, then there is a possibility that you are not going to have any fun watching it. For example, take one of the action scenes halfway into the film that involves the team trying to escape on an airplane. While airborne, the plane is hit by a missile, blowing it to pieces, but the team is alright because they’re in a tank. You heard right, apparently there was a tank on the plane conveniently including parachutes. Now they are slowly flying towards the ground in a tank with the jets that attacked them still circling.

Another scene has one of the protagonists swiftly climbing down a rope that is hanging along the side of a skyscraper while the enemy shoots at him. Surprisingly, the villain is unable to hit the protagonist with so many bullets from a machine gun despite the hero being completely open while descending the rope. Nor is the hero injured when he falls a good part of the way.

Jessica Biel plays Charissa Sosa and in a post credits scene, we see the original actors who played Face and Murdock with their film equivalents. Dick Benedict (the original actor who played Face in the show) plays Face’s (Cooper) fellow tanning bed client, credited as “Pensacola Prisoner Milt,” and Dwight Schultz (the original actor who played Murdock in the show) plays the German neurologist who examines Murdock (Copley).

I only saw parts of episodes of the original show, but I never sat down and watched an entire episode nor have I gone back to see the original show from beginning to end. I can’t really compare this adaptation to the original show and say how good or bad of an adaptation this is. However, from what I can remember, I thought this film was just fine. I probably liked the silly action in this film and thought that the film was just a nice little popcorn flick. If you want to see it, this is currently streaming on Max. Check it out if you want. If you don’t like it, I understand.

Next week, we will look at the “Clash of the Titans” sequel in the continuation of “Liam Neeson Month.”