A movie that proves successful adaptations can actually be done from 80's television series.
It's not exactly a deep and thought provoking movie, but it's just plain great fun. The casting would've been impossible to get perfect; B.A. Baracus is getting up there with
Spock, in terms of pop culture icon. While I don't think they quite lived up to the miracle that Abrams pulled off with
Spock, it's still perfectly acceptable.
If you grew up with the show, there are plenty of fan nods, and things that you'll love, and things that you'll hate. During my childhood, I loved the show and for a while lived and breathed it, so for me it brought back flood of memories. And I think that since it left me feeling nostalgic, and wearing a giant $%#@ eating grin. To a large degree it succeeds at recreating the feeling of the original series.
This is another movie that doesn't really fit into one genre - you might guess
war epic. With Murdock, Face, and BA thrown into the mix it becomes quite a bit of an action/comedy/buddy movie. But not quite in the style of
Pineapple Express or
Get Smart;
it becomes successful in almost more of a semi realistic Tropic Thunder, minus the over the top slapstick component. With Liam Neeson heading up the cast, as you might expect, The A-Team stands at attention, and commands a fantastic spin on this style of movie.
The plot is nothing spectacular, but in this case, it doesn't really need to be. Not to make excuses for the film's weaknesses, but when you have four characters that are so strong, and have such great chemistry, you can skimp a little bit and just watching becomes fun. Just the introductions of the characters and the formations of their relationships takes up a fair share of the film's running time. Anyway, you essentially have a team of Iraq War veterans (The A-Team are ex-Airborne) as the old "grunt" vs. "big government" dynamic ensues (sort of what they tried to pull off in
Transformers 2). With Biel's character ending up somewhere in between as an agent assigned to keep the team in check, and Face's love interest as it turns out. The basic premise of the story is that Iran's waging economic warfare on the U.S. and the A-Team ends up going AWOL, cracking the case, and saving the day. It's actually a sort of prequel to the original series, and who knows how the hell they'll be able to manage a sequel with the state they left things in the end. But, something tells me, if it makes enough money, they'll manage it! There seems to be some anti war subtext, that's approached much in the style of Iron Man 2, but there's no need to get heavy with this one.
The one weakness I noticed is in the editing - the film moves along at a very rapid pace, and sometimes it feels like there's are loose ends here and there, but it's no biggie.
Oh man, and the action sequences are often stunning and mindblowing. The creators of the movie obviously asked themselves "what can we do that's never been done before?", and in most cases they pulled it off. Great eye candy for the big screen.
Characters: Hannibal (Liam Neeson): His Introduction as Hannibal is class. One of those actors, few and far between, who gets better with age. Most of here know he's about as great as they get, and these military leadership roles are perfect for him. He is the white Morgan Freeman. Serving as the keystone of the cast, and of the reborne A-Team, and bringing his usual immeasurably dense credibility to the film. There are flashes of his
Taken style action chops, which makes things all the more entertaining.
4/5 Faceman (Bradley Cooper): Up to his usual shinanigance, Cooper plays the ultra confident pretty boy causing and solving all sorts of problems with help from his
skillz with the ladies. Cooper's becoming sort of a one trick pony, but he does a fine job, and as he's proven with his choice of roles so far he fits perfectly into the buddy ensemble and genre.
3.5/5 Murdock (Sharlto Copley): This was my favorite character from the series - the screw up/cook/pilot, whose idiot "sevantedness" is always getting the team out of jams. You might recognize the actor from
District 9. I couldn't be happier with his performance. He pulls off a high quality, and sharply comedic Murdock. There's one scene where he has to act as a press member to gather info, and they made good use of his native South African accent when Wickus pops up on the scene, but there are other scenes where it accidentally starts to slip through.
The accent problem is sort of what happened with Gambit in Wolverine Origins, but overall it's such a good performance, I'm willing to let it slide. I think we're going to be seeing alot of this guy.
4.5/5 B.A. Baracus (Quinton "Rampage" Jackson): What can one really say about a reintroduction of a character of such magnitude. I'm sure opinion will vary so greatly it may not be worth speculating about. Did they pull it off, or didn't they? They did pretty damn good with what they had to work with. Is it perfect? of course not - but could you ever, in a million years, replace Mr. T? of course not.
4/5 Charisa Sosa (Jessica Biel): We all know Jessica Biel has "the hottest ass in Hollywood" - this is actually one of her many
real honors. Now she's not a bad actress, but in this, aside from needing to insert what feels like a last minute love interest (for Face of course), this character hardly serves a purpose. She is sort of a liazon between the federal government and The A-Team. Not spectacularly acted, and not integral to the story, she's just eye candy, of which we most unfortunately don't get to see any of her candy. I guess we'll have to wait for
Vivid's "T & A-Team".
3/5 The Van Not a real character, but definitely deserves a mention. A little souped up for the big screen - it's the only van in history that a spoiler actually made cool.
5/5 CG/set design/cinematograpohy/costumes: It's mostly outside and very seamless, so there's nothing that worthy of mentioning. It's obviously brought up to date, in part to not have to pay for period piece costs - even turning a film into the mid 1980s can end up costing half its budget nowadays. Anyhow, when you see the stunts, you'll know where the cg is placed, and where the production value is spent.
Whereas
MaCgruber was a failed lobotomy,
The A-Team is a candy coated shell of a plot, filled with tasty action, spicy explosions, and a showstealing ensemble of "buddies" with undeniable chemistry, doing what they do best: kicking ass, taking names!, blowing things up and cracking jokes. If you grew up with the series, you won't want to miss it. You also may love or hate and consider it sacrelige at how they approached a character or two (B.A. Baracus), but go in primed for a good time and you're guaranteed to have just that. I say again
this is a very successful big screen adaptation of a classic 80s television series, and proves that these things can be done properly - given the right creative team and group of actors. Because the action sequences and setpieces are so immense and spectacular, I'd suggest seeing it on the big screen. Other than that, if you've got a decent home theater, the Blu-ray should do just fine. One way or another, you're not going to want to miss this one. The only group this won't majorly appeal to is women, but hey, who'd expect four sweaty guys in a souped up pervert van to appeal to that demographic. The women do at least get some
Face time.
Another word of warning: B.A. has obviously not saved enough money to buy his signature gold chains yet. Don't be too let down, This will be in the sequel I'm sure.
If the recent boxoffice frenzy of fantasy, giant robots, and laser beams has become too much for you, and you're looking for something really grounded and funny - this is your ticket, and a must see.
3.5 out of 5