It may be true, as “The A-Team’s” Col. John “Hannibal” Smith insists, that “overkill is underrated,” but you wouldn’t know it from this film.
Overly long, over-complicated and overflowing with what sounds like billions of bullets and beaucoup broken glass, this film version of the hit 1980s TV series about soldiers of fortune is an underwhelming experience. I pity the fool, as TV star Mr. T might say, who mistakes this for genuine entertainment.
That may sound unduly harsh, especially for a movie that was never intended as an Oscar contender. After all, didn’t director Joe Carnahan practically dare anyone to raise any objections by saying “If you don’t like a tank flying out of a plane, then you just don’t like summer movies.”
“The A-Team” does appear to have designs on being a more interesting film than the one that appears on the screen. The director and his screenwriting partner Brian Bloom (who share writing credit with Skip Woods) have talked in interviews about the character work that went into the film’s quartet of team members, but it was to no avail.
Full story: Movie review: ‘The A-Team’ – latimes.com