The A-Team

A group of US Army Special Forces soldiers are convicted by military tribunal of war crimes, and sent to a maximum-security prison. They break out, blow things up, go on the run and try to clear their names against a crime they didn’t commit, while the government tries to chase them down. If you have a problem, if no-one else can help, and if you can find them....Well, you know the rest.

The A-Team has been languishing in a deep circle of development hell for nearly twenty years. Directors and stars have come and gone, but now, at the height of '80s nostalgia, the men with a plan, a van and an over-elaborate approach to crime fighting have returned. Liam Neeson’s Hannibal makes sure the plan comes together, Bradley Cooper charms as conman Face, and Sharlto Copley’s “Howling Mad” Murdock lives up to his name repeatedly. Most iconic of all, however, is B.A. Baracus, immortalised by Mr T in the series, and bravely taken in a slightly different direction by Ultimate Fighter Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.

“A different direction” pretty much sums up this A-Team, in fact. The casualty-free explosions and cabbage bazookas have been replaced by the now standard Bourne Identity approach - people die, tough choices are made, there’s intrigue and double-crossing on all sides. Blessedly, however, Carnahan (Smokin’ Aces) knows what the A-Team is all about: ridiculous stunts, pitying fools and a cracking theme tune. And in case you weren’t convinced already, a tank falls out of a plane and shoots another plane on the way down. What more could you want?

Marcus Kelly