By Christopher Kelly
McClatchy Newspapers
The charmless adaptation of the 1980s television series “The A-Team” is really three movies smashed together into one senseless whole. In an extended prologue, we learn how four Army Special Forces soldiers first began working together. Flash-forward eight years, and we find out how this formerly respectable “alpha team” was framed by the government and thrown into jail. Flash-forward another six months, and the men bust out of prison and attempt to clear their names.
By my count, that’s two origin stories and a sequel, all strung together by a series of choppily edited action scenes. “The A-Team,” directed by Joe Carnahan (“Smokin’ Aces”), doesn’t have a beginning, middle and end – it’s just a series of false starts. The four lead actors – and the iconic characters whom they’re supposed to be reinventing – steadily get lost in the noise.
Liam Neeson plays Col. John “Hannibal” Smith, the cigar-chomping leader of this motley gang. Too bad he seems to be having such a lousy time. George Peppard brought an above-it-all ease to the role on television, but Neeson mostly seems to be channeling Lou Dobbs – a cranky old man outraged at the federal government.