The A- Team (2010)

Director: Joe Carnahan
Writer: Joe Carnahan, Brian Bloom, Skip Woods TV-series: Frank Lupo, Stephen J. Cannell
Cast: Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Jessica Biel, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Sharlto Copley, Patrick Wilson
Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller

The A-Team goes over the top from the very first scene, and sets precedence for what to expect in the following two hours. If you are gonna make entertaining over the top movies, that's the way to do it. Not like Mangold did with Cruise and Diaz in Knight and Day.

I don't at all like the Jessica Biel part of the movie and Bradley Cooper could easily have been exchanged for someone else to work better, but that's the worst part of it. Neeson works as the tough leader and some of the action sequences are pure fun, while others give you the same feeling disaster movies used to give back in the day when a volcano or flood gave the heroes little time to react.

The plot holds a secondary importance because of the genre, but overall it works, and at least a lot better than many plots trying to be so intricate and clever they fool them self. Co-writer and director Joe Carnahan and company knows the focus has to be on the over the top stuff, and for a popcorn movie it holds your attention well despite clocking in at a little past two hours.

Five Minutes of Heaven (2009)

Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Writer: Guy Hibbert
Cast: Liam Neeson, James Nesbitt
Genre: Drama, Crime, Thriller

Five Minutes of Heaven takes on the two sides of a murder taking place in Northern Ireland 1975, and the aftermaths of that murder. This is focused on the psychological effects of such a meaningless murder during the difficult climate, and brought to life by the four actors giving life to both men both the boys back in 1975 and the men now a lifetime later. Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt acts very well throughout, and they had to. The movie relays on it.

The script is fresh. It's not judging or filled to the brink with moral. It keeps the focus, it doesn't prolong the scenes more than needed for effect and it knows which story it tries to tell and does so. It's interesting the way more movies used to be interesting back in the days. This movie also manages to stick it a couple of times to so-called documentary/real life-TV-shows, and scores a couple of points with me for the effort. I'm very close to reward it with an eight, but in the end it just didn't make the cut for that rating.