The entire time I was watching "The A-Team," I kept asking myself over and over "Does this movie really need to be so complicated?" The entire movie watches like a heist film that thinks it's cleverer than we realize it to be, but should we have so much plot twists and such a complex plot for a movie based on a series from the eighties about four guys who drive around in a black pedo van and fight bad guys? Seriously? From what I've heard on the internet, this adaptation went through constant re-writes and had about five screenwriters going through drafts to get it just right and boy does it show. Carnahan and co. take some of the wildest decisions during the action scenes that are not only disorienting but distracting. All of the major action sequences are intercut with scenes of the characters explaining the movements of every person inch by inch through models and props and while they think this will be stylish, it's instead a clear indicator that the writers are aware we'll have no idea what is happening during the large moments of the movie. Meanwhile, the plot is hopelessly (and sometimes ridiculously) convoluted and muddled to where it feels like three different films altogether.

Sometimes it's a spy movie about the CIA, and covert ops, and revenge, sometimes it's a buddy action movie with bromance dialogue thrown in every so often to keep us awake, and sometimes it's a dumb cheesy action film. How else to explain the sequence of Face shooting a machine gun at the top of a tank in mid-air at figher jets (something that screams dumb but fun), and then the climax involves a ridiculous slight of hand sting that is lacking in real action of fighting and more focused on imitating David Mamet? And did anyone ever really figure out the entire frame job involving the plates? I sure didn't. Jessica Biel has little to nothing to do here beyond playing a bland love interest, the winks at the television series induce eye rolls, and I never actually figured out who in the movie was a villain and who was just misunderstood. "The A-Team" is the result of too many cooks in the kitchen (the first twenty minutes are the intro, but the frame job is the actual intro, but no the climax reveals this is more of a prequel, how not confusing!), and can only ride on our nostalgia for too long before the audience decides it's a tiresome and often confusing mess of an action film that can never be sure if it wants to re-work the material in to something adult, or appeal to the young crowds with dumb action fun.