The A-Team

Release Date: June 11th, 2010

Click here for The A-Team Trailer.

Deep in the heart of Mexico John "Hannibal" Smith(Liam Neeson) is on a rescue mission to save his teammate Templeton "Faceman" Peck(Bradley Cooper) from a renegade Mexican general. En route to Face, Hannibal enlists the help of disgraced Army Ranger Bosco "B.A." Baracus(Quinton Jackson). The two manage to free Face and escape to an army hospital to enlist insane chopper pilot H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock(Sharlto Copley). The four men flee the hospital with the General in pursuit, narrowly escaping death multiple times thanks to the incredible, and unbelievable, flying of Murdock. The team makes their way across the American/Mexican border where the general's helicopter is destroyed by an United States Air Force Jet.

"Eight years and eighty successful missions later", the four men have become the most highly-regarded, elite combat unit in the United States Army and are stationed in Iraq. A C.I.A Agent, Agent Lynch(Patrick Wilson) arrives one day an informs Hannibal and his commanding officer General Morrison(Gerald McRaney) that Iraqi insurgents are in possession of a United States Mint printing press as well as U.S. Treasury plates and have printed over $1 billion in counterfeit money. Lynch wants Hannibal and his team to retrieve the plates. At the same time, DCIS Captain Charissa Sosa(Jessica Biel), who coincidentally was Face's ex-girlfriend, arrives in Iraq and informs Face that he and his team needs to stay away from the plates and out of Baghdad.

Hannibal finds out that the mercenary group Black Forest, who was working with the U.S. Army, is going to be retrieving the plates lead by their leader Brock Pike(Brian Bloom). Hannibal disregards General Morrison's orders and stages an unofficial "Black ops" mission to retrieve the plates. Hannibal and his team return successfully from the mission and go to meet with Morrison. On the way Morrison's jeep is blown up with Morrison presumably dead. Hannibal realizes it was Pike and the rest of Black Forest but is unable to stop them before they make off with the plates.

Hannibal and his team are charged with Morrison's death and the stealing of the plates and are dishonorably discharged and sentenced to 10 years in separate Federal Prisons. Six Months later, Hannibal breaks out of prison with the help of Lynch and the C.I.A. and reassembles his team. Hannibal along with Face, B.A. and Murdock stage a plan to find Pike and the plates and clear their names. But there is more to the plates than Hannibal realizes which unfolds into a deeper and darker plot than expected.

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Who doesn't love an action movie based off of one of the most beloved t.v. sitcoms from the 80's? That's what I thought. The A-Team comes from director Joe Carnahan who tries to out his own spin on the iconic show without sacrificing what made it great in the first place. Carnahan brings together a great, if not extremely mixed cast for this film. The A-Team has everything from UFC fighters and Award-winning actors to upcoming Hollywood stars.

Let's "Face" it (ya get it? "Face"?......whatever) nobody looks at a trailer for The A-Team or hears about this film and thinks "man I can not wait to see the gripping plot or the award-winning story". People come to see this movie for the action, the explosions, the gunfights and the humor and on that front this film really delivers. The story isn't immaculate, and the acting isn't something you are going to find in a some big movie like The Shawshank Redemption. But that isn't the point of this movie. The point is the action.

Oh, and if you want realistic action then find another movie, because you won't find it here (and I'm not sure you should even be looking here). The action in this movie is definitely high octane, face melting action and it comes at you from start to finish. As the lovely Jessica Biel states towards the beginning of the movie "these h=guys are the best at what they do and they specialize in the ridiculous" which couldn't be closer to the truth. From barrel rolls and mid air stalls in helicopters to floating a semi trailer with airbags to even trying to fly a tank (yeah, you read that right) the action never gets dull. That is one of the main reasons I loved this movie. It was fun to watch. With all the serious movies coming out lately like Avatar, Shutter Island or even The Crazies a movie with over-the-top, insane and unrealistic action like this one is a welcome break.

I said earlier that you won't be coming to this film for award-winning acting. That being said, I was not trying to imply that the acting was terrible. Quite the contrary. The overall cast of the film did a pretty good job making everything flow. Liam Neeson performed wonderfully (I mean he's Liam Neeson, come on now). He really seemed to capture the original character of Hannibal from the television series. Bradley Cooper is proving to be one of the hottest new actors in Hollywood right now. He shows his range a little bit in this film bouncing between funny man, ladies man and action man. I was really impressed with Quinton "Rampage" Jackson's performance. When you think of a big, tough UFC fighter you don't typically think big Hollywood movie. However Jackson didn't seem out of place at all with the cast and showed that he could hold his own in acting. My favorite performance was from Sharlto Copley. The South-African native proved he could act with his performance in District 9 and he followed it up nicely with The A-Team. He was, without a doubt, the comedic relief in the film. Copely did a great job pulling off a American southern accent and made himself very believable.

This movie was packed with insane action, some very nice laughs and came out to be just a straight good time. On all those fronts it succeeded. Was it a contender for an Academy Award for Best Picture? No. Was it a contender for an Oscar Nominee for Best Screenplay? Probably not. Does anybody really think of seeing this movie in the hopes of receiving any of those qualities? Absolutely not. This is movie is good for what it is and set out to be, an action flick. If you wanna see a ton of stuff blowing up, a bunch of insane stunts that would most likely never happen in real life and if you wanna laugh your butt off then you should definitely hit up your local theater and check out this movie. Sure the plot was a little predictable but who cares? You get to see "Rampage" Jackson body slam somebody into a freight tank and Sharlto Copley cook with gunpowder. What more do you need?

I give The A-Team 9 Flying Tanks out of 10