by Brett Parker
Most males from my generation have an affectionate nostalgia for the 80's Tv Show The A-Team, for it embodied a sense of reckless adventure and gung-ho machismo most adolescent men favor in their entertainment. It followed the exploits of rogue mercenaries who carried out a dangerous mission each week, and each episode promised car crashes, wisecracks, and Mr. T in all his gold-chain and fool-pitying glory. With it's heavy-duty action scenes and playful, pulpy feel, it was a TV Show that, let's face it, was meant to show up on the big screen sooner or later.
Hollywood producers are hoping to cash in big time on The A-Team's nostalgia and the most successful thing about the big screen update is how it honors the action-packed excitement and cheerful testosterone of the original show. Director Joe Carnahan directs with the same sense of frantic chaos and looney humor he displayed with Smokin' Aces and his big screen take on the classic series comes crashing into theatres with the same sense of thrill-a-minute bravado and smirking swagger the show embodied so well. It is said of the main characters that they "specialize in the ridiculous" and the same can certainly be said of this film. Thankfully, I mean that as a compliment.
The film follows an elite unit of Alpha Army Rangers who are bound together by dangerous military missions no ordinary soldier could touch. There's Hannibal Smith (Liam Neeson), the all-knowing leader, "Faceman" Peck (Bradley Cooper), the suave point man, "Howling Mad" Murdock (Sharlto Copley), the shell-shocked pilot, and B.A. Baracus (Quinton "Rampage" Jackson), the brooding bruiser. They meet on a deadly mission in Mexico and end up forming a bond that holds them together through the Iraq War. In the final days of that war, Hannibal learns of a secret assignment to intercept the engraving plates of a money counterfeiting scheme in Baghdad. It's a super-secret mission no soldier should be allowed to touch, but Hannibal knows his team can pull off just about anything, so he decides to take it.
As the mission is carried out, the A-Team is set-up and framed for the murder of their superior and for trying to keep the engraving plates for themselves. They are tried and found guilty in a Military Court and are sentenced to ten years in separate prisons. Of course, being the super-soldiers they are, each member of the team busts out of their individual prisons and re-groups to carry out a mission of revenge and name-clearing. This mission comes packed with twists, double-crosses, and mind-blowingly excessive action!
At one point, Hannibal states how "overkill is underrated." That might as well be the filmmaker's mantra for the film's action sequences. The A-Team is one of those action flicks where the filmmakers put realism, plausibility, and logical thought straight into a fire and laugh while it burns. It's the kind of movie where jeeps go driving through buildings, war planes can be evoked at the drop of a hat, giant ship crates get shuffled around like legos, and four men can fall 20,000 feet from the sky in a tank, crash safely in a lake, and drive off towards their next mission. All of this is presented in a dazed, quick-cutting style meant to cloak the ridiculousness of the action's logic. Either you're one of those moviegoers who finds this kind of action to be hopelessly exciting or a terrible bore. This time, I consider it the former.
Insanely over-the-top action can be sold to us if we have a genuine investment in the characters and their situation, and it's ultra-hard to resist the charms and attitude of the A-Team. If there's one thing the film does to perfection, it's to find actors that fully embody the personas of the original cast. It's the best TV-to-big screen casting since Miami Vice. Neeson is an effortless display of militant wisdom as he builds on the wonderful action momentum he started with Taken. With his devilish grin and big cigars, the seasoned veteran has great fun with the role. Cooper cranks up his movie star charisma to make Faceman's charms and smoothness wickedly compelling. Copley brings Murdock's madness such a lived-in sunniness that he transcends goofy caricature acting and brings a cockeyed conviction to the role. Baracus was perhaps the most memorable character from the original series and Jackson embodies everything we cherished about the hulking brute in a seamless manner, although Jackson is allowed to bring more thought and depth to the role than Mr. T was ever allowed to.
Other supporting characters make crucially memorable impressions. Brian Bloom, with his sinister eyes and grizzled voice, was born to play a villain and does so wonderfully as Pine, a Black Ranger nemesis to our heroes. Jessica Biel both embodies sexiness and smarts as Sosa, the government agent hot on the trail of the A-Team who also happens to be Faceman's ex (they have a tense and alluring scene in a photo booth). A surprising performance comes from Patrick Wilson as Lynch, a snarky C.I.A. agent with ambiguous motives. Wilson typically specializes in straight-forward, white bred lunks and to see him inject a knowing nastiness into this persona is rather jarring. He still presents a clean-cut Americana image while playing with a self-kidding sliminess that's great fun to relish.
A small joke is made with the Lynch character and his C.I.A. cohorts: they are presented as incompetent and misguided duds who don't live up to the high standards you'd expect from government figures. They're trigger-happy but don't exactly know how to work a gun. They can't see all the angles, they can't out-think their enemies, they're pushovers. It's as if Carnahan is commenting on the current crop of action heroes, who obviously lack the he-man bravado and war-hungry mindset of yesteryear's warriors. The A-Team are obviously a throwback to the Reagan-Era tough-guy mindset and there's almost a vintage feel to their sense of blow-stuff-up-and ask-questions-later. There's a point to be made with these Frat Boy-turned-C.I.A. buffoons: they're wussies compared to with the audacity and fortitude displayed by these old-school hulks.
So if you have an action sweet tooth and your in the mood for mindless thrills and super-cool characters, then maybe you should hire the A-Team! It's not one of the more intelligent, polished, or plausible action movies you'll ever see, but there's great fun to be had with it's crude, crash-everything style. For all it's melodramatic and dangerous developments, you'll often catch the main characters cracking delightfully mischievous smiles. You'll find yourself doing the same thing in the theatre.
Hollywood producers are hoping to cash in big time on The A-Team's nostalgia and the most successful thing about the big screen update is how it honors the action-packed excitement and cheerful testosterone of the original show. Director Joe Carnahan directs with the same sense of frantic chaos and looney humor he displayed with Smokin' Aces and his big screen take on the classic series comes crashing into theatres with the same sense of thrill-a-minute bravado and smirking swagger the show embodied so well. It is said of the main characters that they "specialize in the ridiculous" and the same can certainly be said of this film. Thankfully, I mean that as a compliment.
The film follows an elite unit of Alpha Army Rangers who are bound together by dangerous military missions no ordinary soldier could touch. There's Hannibal Smith (Liam Neeson), the all-knowing leader, "Faceman" Peck (Bradley Cooper), the suave point man, "Howling Mad" Murdock (Sharlto Copley), the shell-shocked pilot, and B.A. Baracus (Quinton "Rampage" Jackson), the brooding bruiser. They meet on a deadly mission in Mexico and end up forming a bond that holds them together through the Iraq War. In the final days of that war, Hannibal learns of a secret assignment to intercept the engraving plates of a money counterfeiting scheme in Baghdad. It's a super-secret mission no soldier should be allowed to touch, but Hannibal knows his team can pull off just about anything, so he decides to take it.
As the mission is carried out, the A-Team is set-up and framed for the murder of their superior and for trying to keep the engraving plates for themselves. They are tried and found guilty in a Military Court and are sentenced to ten years in separate prisons. Of course, being the super-soldiers they are, each member of the team busts out of their individual prisons and re-groups to carry out a mission of revenge and name-clearing. This mission comes packed with twists, double-crosses, and mind-blowingly excessive action!At one point, Hannibal states how "overkill is underrated." That might as well be the filmmaker's mantra for the film's action sequences. The A-Team is one of those action flicks where the filmmakers put realism, plausibility, and logical thought straight into a fire and laugh while it burns. It's the kind of movie where jeeps go driving through buildings, war planes can be evoked at the drop of a hat, giant ship crates get shuffled around like legos, and four men can fall 20,000 feet from the sky in a tank, crash safely in a lake, and drive off towards their next mission. All of this is presented in a dazed, quick-cutting style meant to cloak the ridiculousness of the action's logic. Either you're one of those moviegoers who finds this kind of action to be hopelessly exciting or a terrible bore. This time, I consider it the former.
Insanely over-the-top action can be sold to us if we have a genuine investment in the characters and their situation, and it's ultra-hard to resist the charms and attitude of the A-Team. If there's one thing the film does to perfection, it's to find actors that fully embody the personas of the original cast. It's the best TV-to-big screen casting since Miami Vice. Neeson is an effortless display of militant wisdom as he builds on the wonderful action momentum he started with Taken. With his devilish grin and big cigars, the seasoned veteran has great fun with the role. Cooper cranks up his movie star charisma to make Faceman's charms and smoothness wickedly compelling. Copley brings Murdock's madness such a lived-in sunniness that he transcends goofy caricature acting and brings a cockeyed conviction to the role. Baracus was perhaps the most memorable character from the original series and Jackson embodies everything we cherished about the hulking brute in a seamless manner, although Jackson is allowed to bring more thought and depth to the role than Mr. T was ever allowed to.
Other supporting characters make crucially memorable impressions. Brian Bloom, with his sinister eyes and grizzled voice, was born to play a villain and does so wonderfully as Pine, a Black Ranger nemesis to our heroes. Jessica Biel both embodies sexiness and smarts as Sosa, the government agent hot on the trail of the A-Team who also happens to be Faceman's ex (they have a tense and alluring scene in a photo booth). A surprising performance comes from Patrick Wilson as Lynch, a snarky C.I.A. agent with ambiguous motives. Wilson typically specializes in straight-forward, white bred lunks and to see him inject a knowing nastiness into this persona is rather jarring. He still presents a clean-cut Americana image while playing with a self-kidding sliminess that's great fun to relish.
A small joke is made with the Lynch character and his C.I.A. cohorts: they are presented as incompetent and misguided duds who don't live up to the high standards you'd expect from government figures. They're trigger-happy but don't exactly know how to work a gun. They can't see all the angles, they can't out-think their enemies, they're pushovers. It's as if Carnahan is commenting on the current crop of action heroes, who obviously lack the he-man bravado and war-hungry mindset of yesteryear's warriors. The A-Team are obviously a throwback to the Reagan-Era tough-guy mindset and there's almost a vintage feel to their sense of blow-stuff-up-and ask-questions-later. There's a point to be made with these Frat Boy-turned-C.I.A. buffoons: they're wussies compared to with the audacity and fortitude displayed by these old-school hulks.
So if you have an action sweet tooth and your in the mood for mindless thrills and super-cool characters, then maybe you should hire the A-Team! It's not one of the more intelligent, polished, or plausible action movies you'll ever see, but there's great fun to be had with it's crude, crash-everything style. For all it's melodramatic and dangerous developments, you'll often catch the main characters cracking delightfully mischievous smiles. You'll find yourself doing the same thing in the theatre.
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