The A-Team: I love it when a movie comes together...

A much needed fun summertime movie arrives in the form of The A-Team, based on the popular 80's tv series. The movie version is slick, action packed, humorous and just plain fun. The opening sequence actually shows how the team comes together as Colonel Hannibal Smith (Liam Neeson) is trying to rescue his friend and fellow soldier Lt. Peck (Bradley Cooper) nick name Face from Mexican warlords. Smith comes across Sgt Bosco Baracus (UFC fighter Quinton "Rampage" Jackson) who is driving across the desert in the classic black van. They all learn that they are Airborne Rangers and recruit  Army pilot Murdock (Sharlto Copley) from a psychiatric hospital to help them escape the bad guys. It's a thrilling 10 minute opening sequence that sets up the movie wonderfully that ends with a wild helicopter chase.

Flash forward 8 years and 80 successful missions later and the team is getting ready to pull out of Baghdad until a devious CIA agent named Lynch (Patrick Wilson) has a job for them to retrieve counterfeiting plates from the Iraqis. A dangerous mission that the team pulls off successfully but things go haywire and the plates are stolen from them and their boss General Morrison (TV vet Gerald McRaney) is killed and the team is blamed. So they are shipped off to separate prisons and after 6 months have passed, Agent Lynch asks Hannibal to help him find out who took the plates in exchange for their freedom. Hannibal escapes and immediately goes after the other guys to find the real bad guys. The thief in question is a special unit called Black Forest and their leader Pike (Brian Bloom) is a piece of work. A man who enjoys killing a little too much. The A-Team also has to deal with Face's former flame Lt. Sosa (Jessica Biel) who is charged with tracking the team down and recovering the stolen plates.

So that's the story and and then the fireworks kick in. There are several high octane action sequences and the show stopper is of course, the tank falling from the sky while trying to avoid being shot down by drone airplanes. It's totally ridiculous but it's still cool as hell. Another scene has Hannibal jumping off a building and crashing through the window to surprise the bad guys. And the climax is a go for broke shoot out, explosions going off every minute and an intense fight between B.A. and Pike that will leave you screaming hell yeah. I thought all four leads were perfect. And Jackson really surprised me since this was his first acting gig. Cooper was smooth as Face and even got to set up the final plan, which is something Hannibal usually does. Neeson by the way is solid as Smith. And Copley was off the wall as Murdock. Bloom made a very good bad guy, and Wilson was perfectly smarmy as the CIA backer. Jessica Biel was good too, even though she spent the majority of the movie always one step behind the guys.

I would say The A-Team is a very entertaining movie that I enjoyed even more than Iron Man 2. It's what going to the movies is all about. Sure the CG effects are a little much at times, but you know what, just go with it. This film has such high energy that it refuses to settle down. It's aim is to please audiences and to that end it does it job. I was glad they played the theme song several times during the movie and kept in a lot of the classic series quotes like Hannibal's I love it when a plan comes together or B.A. aversion to flying. The A-Team is a good fun summer movie that I think fans and most moviegoers will enjoy.
B+