EW's Owen Gleiberman wrote of "The A-Team", "It's trash so compacted it glows." If you think that comment makes sense, then you might like this movie. Because, honestly, if they had compacted trash so that it then started to glow, it probably wouldn't have seemed all that out of place with the other nonsense that was happening in this film. It seems like a lot of critics seem to be giving this film a break because the show it was based on was pretty silly but that film was, at least, interesting. The action scenes are just too ridiculous and, worst of all, the stakes of the film are non-existent. The McGuffin are printing plates for 100 dollar bills and that's just not all that interesting.

Another problem, which is a growing issue in Hollywood, is that the action scenes are edited in such a way that you really don't know what's going on. You see a lot of big things flying around but a lot of times, it's just noise. I feel like a lot of people need to tone down the CGI because it isn't making things better. In order to enjoy this film, you have to bury your expectations and expect nothing but a bigger, louder, but stupider version of the television show. In one scene, Liam Neeson's Hannibal Smith argues that his team should go in to help prevent the loss of life that the bad guy Black Forest mercenaries would rack up. Then The A-Team goes up and blows the bejeezus out of Baghdad, killing everyone involved (and judging by all of the careening trucks, probably a few bystanders as well.) Of course, this was all the plan coming together so we're supposed to just go with it but the lack of connection between one moment and the next was just too much for me to take.

But the biggest problem with the film is that the show at least tried to have some heart; these were vigilantes who were helping out the little guy. The problem with the movie is that they are just trying to help out themselves and that's not nearly as endearing. It's the inherent problem with an A-Team origin story and the problem that the eleven or so writers on The A-Team film never seemed to crack.

If you like big dumb moves, I'd actually recommend the more fun but arguably less logical "The Losers" or even the loud yet not that exciting "From Paris with Love". I guess I should also review that film which I just watched last night but I actually found myself fast forwarding through parts of it (even though it was only about 90 minutes.) Still that film had a couple of interesting moments which makes it better than the fluffy A-Team. As for The Losers, I forgot to list it on my 2010 Film List, which is good news for Sylvain White and friends because it has definitely gotten a boost from all the lousy movies that I've seen this summer. Granted, it's not a huge boost since that movie was also nonsense but it was more entertaining nonsense.

On the bright side, apparently Hollywood studio execs are starting to realize that all of these remakes and reboots aren't the best business plan and they might go back to trying out some original material. And, to continue the mixed metaphor from earlier, maybe that's the silver lining that's making the compacted trash of this summer seem like it's aglow.