The A-Team

The A-Team (**1/2)

20th Century Fox

Dir: Joe Carnahan

Str: Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Sharlto Copley, Jessica Biel, Patrick Wilson

Meh. This is the word that I find myself saying nearly every week as I leave my local movie theater. In a summer where the box office returns for the blockbuster factories in Hollywood have been notably low, the films themselves have been a remarkable exercise in mediocrity. Action movies, maybe the occasional frat boy comedy, and kids movies (which lately have been the best of the bunch), most of them drawing on talented casts, and even the occasional skilled filmmaker, are sent out every week, and more and more these films are starting to look all the same. Action scenes in the comedies (Date Night, Killers), comedy in the action movies (Iron Man, The A-Team), the kids movies are getting more grown up and the grown up movies are becoming more childish. Movie formulas have been around as long as movies themselves, but it's quite possible that we are heading toward a time where there is only one kind of mainstream movie. An amalgam of everything mindless, where everybody knows exactly what is coming, and nobody could possibly be offended, and wouldn't that be fun.

On the other hand, when you have talented people and take absolutely no chances it is very hard to make a really bad movie, and this brings me to my review of The A-Team. A sort of post dated prequel to the 1980s TV show about a group of Army Rangers who are framed for a crime they didn't commit , and are forced to live as soldiers of fortune, always on the run. The film deals essentially with the story of the crime they didn't commit, and not with the soldier of fortuning, so what you've really got here is a 117 minute film about the opening credits of a TV show. What does the film have that the TV show didn't? Money, and money can buy you two things. 1. Explosions, 2. Movie Stars. It, unfortunately, can't but you love (or at least that's what I've been told).

First things first, the explosions. The A-Team is a film about an elite army unit trying to clear their name so, as you can imagine, the film does feature it's fair share of action scenes. These sequences are so quick cut though, that they are essentially just an aural experience. Director Joe Carnahan, who once upon a time made a very good cop drama called Narc, does manage to keep things as fresh as they can be with his quick pacing, the first 90 minutes of the film just fly by, and the same sense of inspired ridiculousness that made the TV show fun to watch. Example, The A-Team at one point attempts to fly a tank.

Liam Neeson and Bradley Cooper are both charismatic actors who are convincing in the roles of Hannibal (the mastermind) and Face (the ladies man). Sharlto Copley, who made such a strong acting debut in last year's District 9, is effectively, if occasionally obnoxiously, zany as the group's loose cannon pilot Murdoch. UFC fighter Quinton "Rampage" Jackson fights valiantly, in what turns out to be a losing battle, to make us forget that Cpl. B.A. Baracus was once played by the great thespian/philosopher Laurence Tureaud. Jessica Biel is fine (in more ways than one) as Captain Charisa Sosa, even though she's given little to do except look longingly at Face and sternly at everyone else. Patrick Wilson delivers what is probably the film's finest performance as the villainous CIA agent/preppy jerk who goes only by the name of Lynch.

In the end, I have to concede that the film does accomplish what it sets out to do, it is certainly loud, occasionally funny, and usually entertaining. I'm just not sure that what it wants to do is worth doing. I do find it odd that The A-Team, a childish action movie, was defeated by the remake of The Karate Kid, an action movie for children, at the box office this weekend. I was already worried that all mainstream movies will soon be all the same, maybe I was wrong, maybe they already are.