THE A TEAM
4 out of 5 stars

“i love it when a plan comes together.” – capt. hannibal smith



this movie was a lot better than i expected it to be! joe carnahan, director of smokin’ aces, returns with an all-out action flick based on the late 80s show of the same name. if you are a guy and a child of the 80s, i think you’ll enjoy this one… ;)


so, how does one create a 2 hour long movie based on a TV show that ran for 5 years? well… you start with the beginning! capt. hannibal smith (the wonderful liam neeson) is captured by a couple of corrupt mexican policemen under the direction of a corrupt general, and needs to free his friend/colleague lt. templeton “faceman” peck (charming bradley cooper) from getting hanged/killed as well as execute a proper escape route back to u.s. territory. on the way to rescue, hannibal sticks up corp. rosco “B.A.” barracus (UFC fighter rampage!) in his hummer he calls alicia, and they team up immediately after they realize they’re both rangers. a massive shootout and rescuing of face later… they end up at a psych ward of a hospital to pick up their pilot AKA crazy-ass howling mad murdock! (some unknown dude but hilarious nonetheless) thus, that’s just the beginning! 8 years later, you have these guys formulate a plan to extract u.s. bill plates (ones to print money) from baghdad, but they’re then framed by brock pike, who’s a mercenary working for an unknown. will the a-team be able to clear their names in time to stop all corruption? hehe, i won’t give it away… ;)


what a FUN movie! I’m so glad the producers of this picked joe carnahan to direct this because all the action sequences AKA the plans for the various missions are really well written and executed! (and the prep work montages are good too) there’s some funny moments between the guys esp. when B.A. needs to face his fear of flying thanks to crazy murdock’s flying skillz and even funnier when lt. peck busts out of prison via a tanning booth! one gripe would be that this movie needed the following actors to make it better for various reasons: 1) ryan reynolds (better villain than patrick wilson or perhaps male replacement for jessica biel’s character); 2) ray liotta (even better villain than patrick wilson AND ryan reynolds); 3) jeremy piven (i could strangely see him as murdock…) 4) ICE CUBE (you disagree that he SHOULD have been B.A.?) LOL best line from this goes to B.A.: “you pancaked my van! imma kill you, fool!” :P


p.s. oh! and what’s with the jon hamm cameo @ the very end? does that mean…sequel? hmm… well if that’s the case, i may watch that…if and only if it’s got better casting though. ;)