The A-Team

After my recent viewing of this movie, I had to agree with Kyle's one-sentence judgment: Fun, but not as good as it could have been.

On the fun side, the action was plentiful and so frequent that you rarely had time to stop and think--which is a good thing for a movie like this, one whose premise is fundamentally dumb. Patrick Wilson's turn as a CIA agent was also particularly entertaining; the screen grew more interesting every time he was on it. His speech patterns and his interplay with the other CIA agents were high spots. The other actors also did well enough in the scenes where they were grunting or resolving to fight or doing other action-related bits of business. When they had to emote, however, they usually came across as somewhere between bad and silly.

Though it's tempting to blame them for that failing, the fault is not theirs; it's the story's. The plot made sure they had basic motivations for their actions, and it kept them busy enough, but as you'd expect from a high-action summer flick, it never really delved into the characters. With a little more work, the writers and director could have given each of the leads more personal ties to the action, and then we would have been happier during the inevitable moments between action sequences.

In the end, though, that criticism is really a quibble. With The A-Team, you know going in what you've signed up for, and you get it. If you want some summer action (and I always do), check it out.