Mr T pities the fools who turned The A-Team into a movie filled with sex and violence.

The 58-year-old actor, famous for his role as eccentric sergeant BA "Bad Attitude" Baracus in the popular 1980s TV show, has laid into the big-screen adaptation from director Joe Carnahan after attending a test screening. Where the original version was reasonably light fare, the new film ventured into far more adult territory, he said.

"People die in the film and there's plenty of sex but when we did it, no one got hurt and it was all played for fun and family entertainment," Mr T said."These seem to be elements nobody is interested in anymore. It was too graphic for me. I've no doubt it will do big business at the box office but it's nothing like the show we turned out every week."

The original A-Team, which ran from 1983 to 1986, centred on a group of Vietnam veterans who work as "soldiers of fortune" while on the run from the US military after being convicted of a crime they did not commit. Carnahan's movie transfers the action to the modern day and makes the men Iraq war veterans. It stars Liam Neeson as Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith, Bradley Cooper as Lieutenant Templeton "Faceman" Peck, Sharlto Copley as Captain HM "Howling Mad" Murdock and ultimate fighting star Quinton "Rampage" Jackson in Mr T's former role as Baracus.

Both Dwight Schultz, who played Murdock, and Dirk Benedict, formerly Faceman, are reported to have filmed cameos for the movie, which will be released this Friday in the US and on 30 July in the UK. However, Mr T apparently refused to make an appearance. George Peppard, who played Hannibal, died in 1994.

Mr T's misgivings are in line with the original TV show's refusal to show anyone dying on screen, which some consider one of its most amusingly silly traits.