The A-Team

Before we get started, let's remember most of us were pre-pubescent nothings when The A-Team first graced our screens. We were more interested in Mr T action figures than we were with girls, so any modern installment has to a lot to live up to…

We meet our Soldiers of Fortune before they became part of the Los Angeles underground. Framed for that crime they didn't commit, they promptly escape from a maximum security prison in a bid to clear their names and get revenge upon the sucka that set them up.

It’s a fast-paced origin story; how they got together, how they became outlaws and even why B.A. hates to fly. There's a few Scooby-Doo like twists and director Joe Carnahan (Smoking Aces) is not shy with the explosions and overblown A-Team cliché.

The cast aren't perfect, but they have big boots to fill. Liam Neeson does a fair job as Hannibal, Bradley Cooper plays the same part he did in The Hangover, but with a gun, and Murdoch doesn't quite seem as Howling Mad as he surely should.

Quinton Jackson is more rummage than Rampage and finally there's the lovely Jessica Biel as a massively underused love interest/defence agent.

In summary, it's not a great film by any standards: the effects are rushed, the acting average, the script is ridiculous and the action is hugely unbelievable. But, it's fun as hell and hugely entertaining. And in that spirit, it's strangely like the original.

The A-Team is so over-the-top, so removed from reality, it just may be one of the most fun movies so far this year. The action is just crazy.

Fool.

[NOTE: Heh sucka! We pity the fool that don't stay until after the end credits, to see original cast members Face and Murdoch in a criminally short cameo.]