Monday, June 14, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com A-TEAM From Page 9 ues his butt-whooping streak from "Taken" - albeit playing a much less pissed-off character - in his role as Col. John "Hannibal" Smith, the wide-grinning, cigar-puffing leader of the Alpha Team. Brad- .ley Cooper is perfectly cast as Lt. Templeton "Faceman" Peck, awise- cracking womanizer - essentially the same character Cooper played in "The Hangover," except that Faceman will blow up your plane with a turret gun on a tank whilst the tank is parachuting through the troposphere. Before continuing on to the rest of the stellar cast, please re-read the preceding sentence. If such a scene would make you cringe, DO NOT watch "The A-Team." The film's set pieces are all about the suspension of logic, and the best part is, the whole cast and crew are in on the joke. They've all embraced how stupidly excessive "The A-Team" is, and in -order to enjoy it, the audience has to be willing to embrace it as well. Now then. UFC fighter Quinton "Rampage" Jackson does a surpris- e e ingly strong job as B.A. Baracus, the FILM REVIEW character formerly played by Mr. T. Rampage pities fools like a pro and, just like Mr. T, shows vulnerabili- ties beneath his badass exterior. Yet in a film with so many impressive performances, the award for Most Consistent Scene Stealer goes to Sharlto Copley, as James "Howling Mad" Murdock, the team's lunatic pilot. After his incredible break- through in "District 9," Copley is now two for two in delivering eye- poppingly stupendous performanc- es. The absolute beauty of all these actors is their uncanny ability to capture the personalities of and the camaraderie between the original characters without merely imitat- ing them. But a slap on the wrist is neces- sary for whoever cast Jessica Biel ("Valentine's Day"), whose attempt to pull of the role of an army officer is more nonsensical than the para- Now there's a kid who eats his spinach. chuting tank sequence. Admittedly, it's difficult to write a good role for a woman in such a testosterone- fest, but Biel just kills the flow of the movie whenever she's on screen. The only significant drawback of "The A-Team" is its lack of appeal to cinemagoers who prefer their The remake of the films to have creative storytell- ing and to operate within the laws classic Karate Kid'is of physics. If it's not clear by now, dn it's unmitigated fun to watch Han- long but rewardig nibal, Faceman, Murdock and B.A. interact, crack jokes, take down the By IMRAN SYED bad guys and blow shit up. Even tra- Daily Arts Writer ditionally dull scenes, like montag- es, are punctuated with brilliantly A remake of the beloved 1984 hilarious non-sequitors to keep the underdog classic, "The Karate Kid" is audience chuckling throughout. not quite the movie To intentionally misquote Hanni- it should be.7 bal's classic line - "I love it when a Overlong, sput- movie comes together." tering and aim- The Karate less at times - and Kid cheesy pretty much throughout - the At Quality16 film still man- and Rave ages to pack in an Columbia 87*1 West Eisenhower Parkwayi astounding number Aim Arbor,i11481(3 of stand-and-cheer moments toward (734)222-0sf pecial>StudentrPrice (734) 22210200 Disco L BaiRBERS Supporting the UofM Community SINCE 1939 *1 Tear-old 'Kid' the end. Thus, in what has largely been a forgettable year for the blockbuster, "The Karate Kid" may well be the best that summer 2010 has to offer - even if it falls well short of the original. The film stars Jaden Smith (most memorably seen alongside his famous father Will in "The Pursuit of Happy- ness") as Dre, a Detroit youngster who has to move to China with his mother. Apart from its changed setting and character names, the story closely resembles that of the original: Dre meets a girl in Beijing, but some mean bullies keep messing with him every time hetries to talk to her. After one particularly painful beatdown, Dre is rescued by Mr. Han (Jackie Chan), the local maintenance man, who happens to be a secret kung fu master. Dre asks Han to teach him kung fu, and Han agrees after seeing firsthand the ruthless philosophy the local kung fu master is passing along to his students - who happen to be the same kids tormenting Dre. After many painful training sessions, with the usual underdog-story angst and adversity, Dre competes in a kung fu tournament, facing and defeating the bad guys. For all the film's shameless cli- ches, it's made watchable, and occasionally enjoyable, by superb per- formances from its two stars. Smith's performance is fresh, energetic and surprisingly believable. That he has the same mannerisms and some- thing reminiscent of the swagger that made his father one of the world's big- gest movie stars certainly can't hurt. Young Jaden even drops a hip-hop track on the film's soundtrack, as Will Smith did in so many of his biggest hits. (Regrettably, the track also fea- tures Justin Bieber, but still.) And Chan, as he has done in nearly every recent role of his, brings a good deal ofgrace and solemnity, along with unmatched kung fu skills. Although his role is hampered by a needlessly meandering character backstory, Han is a worthy replacement for the vener- able Mr. Miyagi - humble and under- standing, but also funny and blunt when needed. With a grueling runtime of nearly 140 minutes - well beyond the atten- tion span of the film's key demograph- ic - "The Karate Kid" nearly exhausts the considerable charm of its stars and the patience of its audience before Dre's kung fu training even begins. But when the uplifting, musically enhanced scenes of sap and sentiment finally appear, viewers will be all too willing to cheer out loud. It's clear, then, that "The Karate Kid" is a film to love, even if it isn't all that good. DO YOU HAVE A PLAYSTATION 3? WE DON'T. E-mail eajeszke@umich.edu for information on applying to review video games.