Downgrading 'The A-Team' for overkill

As a television series, "The A-Team" was the right fantasy at the right time. Launched in 1983, it put a feel-good spin on the Vietnam War by introducing four exuberant veterans who, though branded as war criminals, were largely treated as heroes. When called upon, they stepped up to fight clearly defined villains. Many were small-scale - bikers, mobsters - but these wars were winnable.

The show also became famous for two things: High levels of action and a near-total absence of bloodshed. Critics found the combination laughable; viewers loved it for that very reason.

As a movie, "The A-Team" is still laughable but not very lovable. It's loud and fast, and reasonably entertaining, but it's also more cynical. It opens with a torture-style beating, and even before things escalate to point-blank executions it's clear the old show's hokey heart has been ripped out.

The iconic characters are still here, recast with mixed success. Liam Neeson, as team leader Hannibal Smith, chomps his cigar well enough, and Bradley Cooper, as Templeton "Face" Peck, is a DNA match for Dirk Benedict. But Sharlto Copley ("District 9") badly overplays H.M. "Howlin' Mad" Murdock, while professional fighter Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, as B.A. Baracus, struggles to deliver every line; he makes Mr. T look like Meryl Streep.

The four soldiers, this time framed for a war crime in Baghdad, are still seeking to clear their names. But they end up killing dozens of people over nothing more than a suitcase full of money plates. The old A-Team, by contrast, once spent an entire episode battling an overly aggressive cab company. In hindsight, it seems like the nobler cause.