‘The A-Team’ Review
A-Team’s scatter-shot plot misses the mark of being a good action-comedy. Its comedy is entertaining, and some of its action scenes are decent, but unfortunately its plot is riddled with enough holes that they sink the film.
Plot Summary (Spoilers Follow)
The film opens in Mexico, where Colonel John “Hannibal” Smith (Liam Neeson) is being held captive. Left for dead by a pair of corrupt cops, he escapes into the desert to rescue a fellow Army Ranger, Templeton “Faceman” Peck (Bradley Cooper). En route, Hannibal encounters a disgraced Ranger, Basco B.A. Baracus (Quinton Jackson), and convinces him to aid in the rescue. On the run from the renegade Mexican forces, they stop at an army hospital to recruit H.M. “Howling Mad” Murdock (Sharlo Copley), a mental patient and pilot. Fleeing in a medical chopper, they trick their pursuers into entering American airspace, where the renegades are shot down by the Air Force. This represents the culmination of Hannibal’s elaborate plan.
Eight years later, the team is now a decorated, elite combat unit stationed in Iraq. Hannibal is contacted by CIA Agent Lynch (Patrick Wilson). A group of Iraqi insurgents are transporting a set of US treasury plates being used to make counterfeit currency out of Baghdad. Against the advice of his commanding officer, General Morrison (Gerald McRaney) and Face’s former lover, Captain Sosa (Jessica Biel), Hannibal and the team recover the plates in an unofficial “black” operation. When the team returns to base, the container with the plates and Morrison’s Humvee are destroyed by contractors from the private security firm Black Forest, led by a mercenary named Pike (Brian Bloom). With Morrison dead, there is no record of the mission, and the four are arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Six months later, Lynch visits Hannibal in prison and reveals that Pike is trying to sell the plates with the help of a mysterious Arab. Hannibal strikes a deal with Lynch: in exchange for recovering the plates, the team will be reinstated with clean records. Lynch agrees and helps Hannibal escape. Hannibal frees Face, BA (who has found religion in prison and refuses to kill anymore) and Murdock. Sosa, convinced the team is in league with Pike, pursues them. While escaping from a German hospital, the team’s aircraft is destroyed by military drones. However, they escape inside a tank with parachutes, using the turret to maneuver.
The team tracks Pike, recovering the plates and capturing the Arab, who is revealed to be General Morrison. Morrison was working with Lynch and Pike to steal the plates, but faked his own death to double-cross Lynch. When Lynch discovers that Morrison is alive, he orders an air strike to eliminate the team. They escape, but Morrison, the only one who knows the team is innocent, is killed.
Desperate, Face comes up with a plan. Hannibal contacts Sosa (knowing she is being tapped by Lynch) and agrees to hand over Morrison and the plates at the LA docks in exchange for his freedom. Face then contacts Sosa on an untapped phone he had given her earlier. Lynch and Pike prepare to trap the team at the docks. Face has anticipated this, and executes an elaborate plan to draw Lynch into the open. However, when Pike uses a bazooka to sink the ship the team is using, the plan nearly falls apart until Pike is killed by BA. Lynch confronts Hannibal and a hooded figure he believes to be Morrison, shooting the figure in the head. Just as it seems as though Lynch has won, the container they are fighting in is lifted, revealing Sosa and a squad of Federal agents. The figure in the hood is revealed to be Murdock in a Kevlar helmet. Lynch is taken into custody, but the team is arrested again for escaping prison. Before he is taken away, Sosa kisses Face. As the frustrated team is taken away, Face produces a key from his mouth, repeating Hannibal’s catch-phrase: “I love it when a plan comes together.”
Anyone familiar with a flip book knows that when you put a series of still pictures together in succession, it can create the appearance of movement and activity. Sadly, this film does not seem to have mastered this basic principle of film making. The overall narrative of the film is incredibly disjointed and the plot is so poorly executed it is impossible to follow. Much of this is due to one critical error: there are three different factions chasing the team. As each of these factions schemes against and chases the others, it is easy to get them confused. Much of the time, the viewer will be trying to figure out who is chasing the team. Why the chase scene is occurring is too frequently a question that is also left unanswered. The villain’s motivations are never explained and their performances suffer as a result. In particular, Agent Lynch is portrayed as an inept bumbler, who will annoy viewers rather than intimidate or scare them. The character is such a pathetic caricature of a corrupt CIA agent that he is not even worthy of the title of comic relief. Biel’s character fairs little better, as it feels like her only role in the film is to look pretty for 90 minutes and kiss the hero at the end.
However, another reason for the film’s scattershot of a plot is that it tries to incorporate too many elements into the story. Viewers will find themselves confronted with an exhibition of clichéd twists: the jilted lovers confronting each other, the senior mentor who is revealed to be a traitor, the second in command taking his mentor’s place. The worst offender is the unnecessary subplot involving BA’s pacifism, which is unconvincing and immediately abandoned after a single lecture from Hannibal. None of these scenes are bound together convincingly into one grand narrative. The latter half of the film feels like watching several mediocre short films.
This is not to say that the film is a complete failure. A few of the individual scenes are good in and of themselves. The opening scene is decently exciting and does an admirable job establishing the personality of each of the four team members. That is where the film shines. The interactions between the four are genuine and often hilarious. While the action half of the action-comedy label is disappointing in the second half, the comedy in the first half of the film is genuinely funny. Face’s cool, quick wit is perfectly complemented by BA’s over the top personality and Murdock’s cartoonish ramblings. All of this is brought together by a solid performance from Neeson’s Hannibal, whose calculating command provides their scenes with a focus that gave the initial action sequences purpose and direction. While some may criticize the individual characters as one dimensional, together the performances exceed the sum of their parts. These moments of comedic comity make the first half of the film enjoyable.
However, the uninspired series of action movie vignettes loosely attached to the first half lack any of these interactions. The fight sequences at the end of the film are dark and the camera is jerky, leading to a confusing and disappointing final confrontation. The ending is nonsensical and thoroughly disappointing. Pity the fools who sit through this entire movie. But if the viewer is in need of a decent laugh for 40 minutes and nothing else can help, maybe they should hire the A-Team.
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I don’t think its the movie cause I followed the plot perfectly. I did have the privilege of watching the entire A-Team series and that really gets you used to the characters and in on some of the inside jokes that are (I will admit) are poorly portrayed in the movie. I will also admit that this movie is supposed to take place before the series. In the series the team was an elite combat unit from Vietnam but in this movie they seem to be in the Iraq war. My only problem with this movie is that they didn’t put everything in the proper time area.