A team of elite covert ops soldiers are sent to prison for a crime they didn’t commit.  Shortly after their incarceration they escape and out on the loose looking for revenge and to clear their names.  The team consists of: the aviation mad man Murdock (Sharlto Copley), strong muscle B.A. Baracus (Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson), the suave pretty boy Lt. Templeton ‘Faceman’ Peck (Bradley Cooper), and the brilliant strategist Hannibal (Liam Neeson); they’re an unstoppable force.

The film is billed, in my mind at least, as the G. I. Joe movie for 2010 and it works perfectly in that vein.  If you love movies that hand you fun over the top action with plots that don’t seem to step on its toes throughout the movie but rather just facilitate the action that you love to see more of, then this is the movie for you.  I almost find it hysterical that this movie was released within a six month period where a far less superior movie, that was trying to work the very same gimmick, was released (i.e. The Losers).  Bradley Cooper, Quinton Jackson, Sharlto Copley and Liam Neeson all seems like a natural team that have been together for so long and have that great history together where they can joke about their individual idiosyncrasies that it’s magnificently I joy to watch everyone just tease each other.

Even though I know, as someone who never watched the original 80s television show, that the icon of the show is the character B. A., who was played by Mr. T in the original, I found myself less and less interested in that character and more interested in Murdock.  Sharlto Copley’s performance as the bordering on insane character that happened to be one of the greatest pilots ever presented in film was amazing.  From moments where he was on the ground messing around to obviously entertain himself to when he actually got behind the controls of a rusty chopper were always entertaining and so quote-worthy that I almost forgot the rest of the intense cast that was in this movie.

My only complaint about this film has to come with the final act.  With the movie trying to tie up the revenge plot I somehow found it, not tough to fathom, but kind of odd how so quickly a certain character just became the bad guy.  Now I know that the movie isn’t selling me on plot, so I’m not going to hold this against the film.  However, I did find the entire final sequence kind of sloppily put together, especially in comparison to the rest of the movie.  Maybe that’s one of the differences with TV and film.  Films, generally, have this three arc system while television shows never really have to get into that third act.  Television shows, especially those like this which are completely episodic tales, never really have to resolve more than the completion of the mission.

Overall it’s a highly entertaining movie with such fun roles you’ll definitely want to watch it more than once.  I’d like to predict from this moment on, that Sharlto Copley will be receiving an award at the Oscars within the next two years.

IMDB says 7.6/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 52%

I say 8.0/10