The A-Team is the movie remake of the 80s TV show. It was directed by Joe Carnahan and stars Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley, Quinton Jackson, Jessica Biel and Patrick Wilson.
Plot:
Somewhere in Mexico, Hannibal Smith (Liam Neeson) gets beat up by corrupt police men; though not as beat up as people might think. He manages to escape and sets out to save his fellow-soldier Faceman Peck (Bradley Cooper). On his way, he meets another Ranger, B. A. Baracus (Quinton Jackson) who decides to help him save Face. And finally, the three of them escape with the help of Captain Murdock (Sharlto Copley), crazy, but a pilot par excellence.
8 years later, the four of them are a force within the army, stationed in Iraq and getting ready to bust some money-printers. Unfortunately, they’re being set up. But by who? And what do Face’s ex-girlfriend Sosa (Jessica Biel) and the CIA-Agent Lynch (Patrick Wilson) want?
Like most people my age, I used to watch the A-Team when I was younger and all the power of nostalgia surrounds it. But my judgement was never too cloudy to know that the show actually sucked (even though it was awesome) and that’s what I expected from the movie as well: stupid jokes, explosions and fun. So it might not come as a surprise that I really liked the film. [What does come as a surprise that most people seem to have expected a good movie and were consequently disappointed. You’re watching the A-Team, people. Don’t expect quality.]
Anyway. There are bad things: The plot is very predictable. The soundtrack is, too. The pimped theme is pretty damn awesome and was played much too little. It was practically the Face show, with additional performances by the rest of the team. Quinton Jackson is not a very good actor (though he also didn’t have much to work with, I admit).
But there are quite a few things that went very right: The dialogues, especially the banter between the team-members, are pretty good. Generally speaking, the chemistry between the guys was great.
Sharlto Copley was awesome. [Even though I was wondering if he used a different English accent in every scene on purpose or if he just couldn’t stick with one.] The “You spin me right round” scene or the Braveheart one will be forever in my heart. Which makes it even sadder that he didn’t get to do much. [But then again, that was already Murdoch’s problem in the series.]
And Patrick Wilson was really good, too! After being Nite Owl, an admittedly rather boring role, it was nice to see him return to Hard Candy heights. And who would have thought that it would be in an A-Team film?
Summarising: Very watchable, very funny – just don’t expect too much.
kalafudra's Stuff 
My thoughts exactly – when I left the cinema I though “that was pretty terrible – why did I laugh and enjoy myself so much?” Then once I worked out that it was the terrible cheesiness that made it enjoyable, I could sleep at night again!
That sums it up perfectly. Only that I never worried because I know that I have awesome taste. ;P If I like something, it’s gotta be good.
[Yes, my ego takes up an entire continent.]
I’d love to see this movie. There are so many nice action-movies this year…
I think you’d enjoy this film. But wait till the Expendables comes out! :)
Sharlto Copley should get more roles – and more screentime here. He did the accents on purpose because it was in character. Dwight Schultz used to do it, too and Copley is great with accents. It´s too bad that many reviewers don´t know the original and think that Copley just isn´t able to keep the original. He said it few times by himself that he did different accents like original Murdock in the show did.
And I was also thinking “it was so stupid but damn funny” :-) And suprisingly, it was much better for the second time.
Dwight Schultz used to do it, too? That explains a lot.
No wonder I didn’t get that…that little detail apparently disappeared in the German dubbing.
What deadra said – since I never saw the original A-Team in the original English, that point was lost on me. But it is pretty cool.