‘A-Team’ better than expected (3.5/5)

The A-Team

Starring: Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quinton Jackson, Sharlto Copley
Directed by: Joe Carnahan
Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence throughout, language and smoking.
Running time: 1 hour, 57 minutes.

“The A-Team” was actually pretty exciting.

But that’s what you get for going in with low expectations.

I never watched the old TV show, but I know a lot of people who have, and, therefore, I know a lot of people who were dreading this movie.

Maybe you just need a clear perspective. Or, maybe, it simply wasn’t that bad.

Part of what makes “The A-Team” so watchable is the characters. Each member of the team is awesome in his own respects and brings his own charm to the screen.

Heading the crew is the aging but able John “Hannibal” Smith (Liam Neeson). Sadly, it’s difficult to watch Neeson without turning your thoughts to the tragic loss of his wife, Natasha Richardson, last March. But Neeson pulls through as the glue holding the team together.

Next is the handsome, winning Templeton “Faceman” Peck (Bradley Cooper), known more simply as “Face.” You may recognize Cooper as the devil-may-care leader of “The Hangover” gang.

The rough and tough B.A. “Bad Attitude” Baracus (Quinton Jackson), and his over-the-top fear of flying, adds his own spice to the group. The UFC-fighting Jackson is certainly no Mr. T, but he’ll do.
(Spoiler alert: “Pity the fool” was never uttered, though B.A. did make it a point to call just about anything a “fool.”)

Rounding out the motley quartet is the certifiably insane helicopter pilot H.M. “Howling Mad” Murdock (Sharlto Copley). Copley, who got his acting debut in last year’s “District 9,” is amazingly hilarious here. You’d never know he wasn’t a professional actor.

After a glimpse at the U.S. Army Special Forces team formation, you’re quickly ushered dozens of missions later to near-present-day Iraq.

Turns out some Saddam loyalists have gotten their hands on special plates that will allow them to counterfeit billions of dollars of U.S. currency.

The A-Team is ordered (covertly, of course) to get these plates before the loyalists can escape Baghdad with them.

But, inevitably, things go horribly, terribly wrong. And the members of the A-Team are framed for a crime they didn’t commit.

They also discover that the people truly responsible may be from their side of the Atlantic.

Complicating matters is the beautiful Captain Carissa Sosa (Jessica Biel), Face’s former girlfriend and a general subscriber to the “I blame the A-Team” philosophy,  the slippery CIA Agent Colonel Lynch (Patrick Wilson) and the shifty black operative leader Pike (Brian Bloom).

As Hannibal says, “Overkill is underrated,” a phrase that writer/director Joe Carnahan may have had taped over his glasses. Carnahan definitely went crazy with some of the action sequences, but they were all really, really fun to watch — take the thrilling plane shootout where the A-Team tries to escape with the aid of a tank falling thousands of feet from the air.

“The A-Team” is at its best during its lighthearted, humorous sequences. The few “tender” moments that there are (which are thankfully minimized) make you want to groan. Sorry, Jessica Biel, but Captain Sosa’s love affair with Face just never made a connection with me.

In my mere 23 years, I’ve noticed that America has quite the obsession with tales of government corruption and rogue vigilantes. Let us hope that no such heroics are needed. If they are, we can always call in the A-Team.

3.5 of 5 stars

‘Taken’ not so original (3/5)

Taken

Rated: PG-13 for violence, disturbing thematic material, sexual content, some drug references and language.
Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes

As far as action movies go, “Taken” hits right about on par. Starring Liam Neeson (“Star Wars,” “Schindler’s List”), Maggie Grace (“LOST,” “Jane Austen Book Club”), and Famke Janssen (“X-Men,” “Rounders”), the recognizable cast aids a lackluster script.

Director Pierre Morel makes his American Blockbuster premiere in this film about retired CIA agent Bryan Mills (Neeson) who seeks his missing 17-year-old daughter Kim (Grace) after she is kidnapped by sex slave traders in Paris.

Mills’ former work as a “preventer” for the CIA (mentioned but not defined by Mills) gives reason for his overprotectiveness of his estranged daughter and convenient knowledge of tracking and martial arts. Yet this role is used as an explanation and is left at a superficial level. His group of friends and connection with French officials shallowly penetrates Mills’ past life, yet leaves the vast majority obscured.

One action movie stereotype that “Taken” would have benefited from diverging from was that of “highly trained, deadly killers” having the aim of Dick Cheney. Shootouts that should realistically end within seconds become drawn-out affairs. Government corruption, too, is another that Morel latches to, yet their unpunished behavior makes it seem more as a device to reel in the audience rather than as a legitimate plot point.

While still a film amateur, Grace does an excellent job in her role and Morel would have done well to use her more. The film is about Mills’ journey rather than Kim’s, yet more time spent fleshing out Kim’s character would have drawn the audience even more into the action. Despite this, the scene of her kidnapping is the film’s shining moment and is enough to hold the audience to the end.

Morel seems to have caught the sequel bug as rumors circulate in which Bryan Mills’ character is said to return. When is enough enough? The film does not necessitate a “part two” and will more than likely suffer from another.

Overall, “Taken” was a typical ticking-clock plot with cookie-cutter characters, but its short running time and modestly suspenseful scenarios will keep fans of the genre entertained before becoming lost in the sea of similar movies.

3 of 5 stars