It has been more than 25 years since George Peppard chewed on a cigar and uttered the immortal line: "I love it when a plan comes together."

Joe Carnahan's big screen revamp of The A-Team doesn't quite come together, lacking the low-rent charm of the original.

Indeed, nothing is impossible in this all guns blazing adventure for Colonel John Hannibal Smith (Neeson), Lieutenant Templeton Face Peck (Cooper), Captain Howlin' Mad Murdoch (Copley) and Sergeant Bosco BA Baracus (Jackson).

Framed for the murder of their good friend, General Morrison (McRaney), the enterprising soldiers break out of military prison and hijack a plane, which is subsequently shot down by military gunships.

The quick-thinking quartet leap into an armoured tank – handily parked in the hold – just before the plane explodes then parachute to terra firma at breakneck speed, shooting down the gunships using the tank's weapons systems.

Jessica Biel's plucky heroine, newly demoted army lieutenant Charissa Sosa, isn't kidding when she observes: "They are the best... and they specialise in the ridiculous."

She gives chase along with tenacious CIA agent Lynch (Wilson) and his underlings.

The A-Team is preposterous, asking us to believe that each member of the squad possesses split-second timing to rescue their buddies from almost certain death.

Villains help the cause by delaying executions until the last second, as if they are expecting their plans to be thwarted.

Sure enough they are, reaching a crescendo with an overblown final showdown at the docks aboard a ship laden with cargo containers.

Neeson is miscast in a role that demands far more charisma as the master tactician who vows: "I'd rather face a firing squad than betray you guys."

Thankfully, Cooper is a perfect fit for an incorrigible ladies man, merrily flaunting his washboard abs to pique the interest of wives and girlfriends in the audience.

Copley is often unintelligible as "a functioning lunatic", who paints his face blue and pretends to be Braveheart, riding a hobbyhorse into battle against the English.

Damon Smith