The A Team: Paisa Vasool Experience

Rating: 3 out of 5*

Starring: Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Jessica Biel

Director: Joe Carnahan

June 26, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): The A-Team packs in all the big ticket cinema fun, a title with name recognition, a lot of action, stunts and explosions, plus a far-fetched plot that features preposterous and outrageous situations yet succeeds in entertaining you to your money’s worth. It is based on the wildly popular TV series that aired during the middle stretch of the 1980s on American Television.

The film begins with a prologue that depicts the initial chance meeting of four Army Rangers and Iraq War vets – the cigar chomping Col. Hannibal Smith (Liam Neeson), ladies’ man Lt. ‘Faceman’ Peck (Bradley Cooper), mohawked B.A. Baracus (Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson), and idiot savant pilot Capt. H.M. Murdock (Sharlto Copley). It then jumps to to “8 years ahead,…80 successful missions later.” When the men are framed for the theft of some valuable printing plates in Iraq, they are dishonorably discharged and sentenced to ten years of hard time. With the help of CIA agent Lynch (Patrick Wilson), Hannibal finds a way to bust himself and the rest of his men out as they go on the run and desperately attempt to clear their names by locating the baddie who set them up, Pike (Brian Bloom). Charissa Sosa (Jessica Biel), military officer who also happens to be Face’s former girlfriend and still remains attracted to him is on the job to track him down and apprehend him.

The screenplay co-written by Brian Bloom, Skip Woods and director Joe Carnahan chucks logic and reason out the window in favor of mindless and thrilling action sequences. One of the most exhilarating action scenes here takes place in the air as Murdock pilots the team in a fighter jet as another fighter jet chases and fires at them. At times, the dialogue is quite snappy, for instance, in the way that Hannibal lets the soldiers on a grounded military aircraft that they’re about to steal the aircraft or when Hannibal quotes Gandhi.

The terrific cast certainly helps to keep you entertained and hungry to watch the team devise more clever and fun plans in further missions once this one comes to an end. At a running time of just under 2 hours, The A-Team is a mindlessly entertaining blockbuster brimming with thrilling action sequences and delightfully zany characters that never take themselves too seriously.

All in all a paisa vasool entertainer that deserves a big screen experience.

–Sampurn Wire