15-Year-Old Liam Neeson Action Film Dominates Streaming Platforms

The 2010 action-comedy film The A-Team, starring Liam Neeson, is finding a new audience at home after its release on Netflix.

According to FlixPatrol, the movie was the seventh-most-watched title on the U.S. Netflix charts on October 19. The top spot went to the new documentary The Perfect Neighbor.

Based on the 1980s TV series created by Frank Lupo and Stephen J. Cannell, The A-Team was directed by Joe Carnahan and written by Carnahan, Brian Bloom, and Skip Woods. The film follows a Special Forces team that is wrongly imprisoned.

They escape and work to clear their names. Alongside Neeson, the cast includes Bradley Cooper, Jessica Biel, Quinton Jackson, Sharlto Copley, and Patrick Wilson. The project was produced by Cannell, Tony Scott, and executive producer Ridley Scott.

The film’s journey to the screen was long. It had been in development since the mid-1990s, going through multiple writers and story ideas before finally moving forward. Neeson, Cooper, and the rest of the cast joined in 2009, with filming taking place in Canada later that year. The A-Team was released in theaters by 20th Century Fox on June 11, 2010.

Critics had mixed feelings about the movie. Rotten Tomatoes shows a 48% approval rating from 217 reviews, noting that “The A-Team assembles a top-rate cast only to ditch the show’s appealingly silly premise for explosive yet muddled blockbuster filmmaking.” On Metacritic, the film scored 47 out of 100, indicating mixed or average reviews. CinemaScore polls gave it a “B+” from audiences.

Some critics praised the film’s energy and action. Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly described it as “trash so compacted it glows.” Richard Corliss of Time called it “the best in a mediocre line-up of summer-action flicks,” though he admitted the movie lacked a strong plot and complex characters.

Peter Travers from Rolling Stone said it was “big, loud, ludicrous and edited into visual incomprehension,” but added, “pity the fool who lets that stand in the way of enjoying The A-Team.” The St. Petersburg Times gave a positive review, saying the movie was “literally a blast” and full of thrills.

Other critics were less impressed. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times criticized the film as an “incomprehensible mess” and said it felt as shallow as the TV series. Stephen Whitty of The Star-Ledger compared it to Carnahan’s Smokin’ Aces, saying the film captured very little from the original show besides a Dirty Dozen-style gimmick.

Although The A-Team did not perform strongly in theaters, grossing $177 million worldwide against a $110 million budget, it is finding renewed interest on streaming platforms. Fans who missed it the first time now have the chance to enjoy the explosive action and star-studded cast from the comfort of home.

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