Image from Reel Loop.com
The movie updates the team (Hannibal Smith, Templeton “Face” Peck, Bosco Baracus, and Murdock) to be vets of the Gulf War. During the final days of the war, the boys are tasked with recovering stolen engraving plates, but when the only man who knows of their mission is killed, the U.S. government – particularly sexy CIA spook Jessica Biel – pin the blame on our hapless heroes.
Well, hapless isn’t quite the right word. These guys are, okay, hapful. (Happy?) They got plenty of hap. Smith (Liam Neeson) is the brains; Face (Bradley Cooper) is the con man; Baracas, also known as BA (Rampage Jackson) is the brawn; and Murdock (Sharlto Copley) is the wildcard. After a quick military tribunal, each is sent to a different prison. Each escapes. Their mission, obviously, is to find the man they think set them up, the better to clear their names.
Standard stuff, right? Perhaps. But where the movie succeeds is in the appeal of its characters – not caricatures – and its creative violence. The trailer prominently featured the team “flying” a tank out of an airplane, using the tank’s gun to propel them. Possible? Probably not. Fun to watch? Yes, indeed.
It also helps that the action, while nonstop, isn’t just a mishmash of Things Getting Blown Up. You can actually follow the action, which is a scarce commodity in action movies nowadays. If there’s any CGI, there ain’t much of it. But more importantly, the editing allows us to track who is shooting at whom, who’s getting punched, who’s getting knocked out.
The movie does retain some of the running gags of the show. Hannibal smokes cigars and loves it when a plan comes together. BA has a mohawk (usually) and hates to fly (origin explained). Face is a ladies’ man; Murdock is certifiable but a great pilot. If you look closely, you can see some nods to earlier roles, such as that of Dirk Benedict, the original Face, who played Starbuck on the original Battlestar Galactica, or Dwight Shultz, who played the original Murdock and Reg Barclay on Star Trek: The Next Generation. So it’s a nod to earlier roles and the earlier series without mocking it or deriving too heavily from it, which is good.
The actors are all surprisingly good fits. Liam Neeson taking over for George Peppard? Hogwash. And yet gone is the Irish accent and appearing is a salt-and-pepper mane. Rampage Jackson for Mr. T? Jackson hadn’t even acted before; he’s a mixed-martial-arts guy. But he makes a good BA. Copley, the man best known for the indie sci-fi hit District 9, as Howlin’ Mad Murdock? Whoda thunk it and all that. Someone saw something. Good casting.
All in all, The A Team is the prototypical popcorn movie. It ain’t deep, but it has a plot you can follow and lots of manly, manly action. It’s what it pretends to be, and nothing more, and it’s far better than you’d expect from a movie of an old TV show – the past record there isn’t pretty.
The A Team: ***
