The A-Team ruined my childhood because it was the very first television show where I discovered that there’s a formula to making television. I remember the moment clearly, it came in the middle of season two when I predicted down to the exact same time when something would happen in the TV show and it literally ruined any enjoyment I had from watching. When they announced they were making a movie, I could not have been more bored with this news. I didn’t care about the cast or material and I didn’t watch any of the trailers. I felt like I got my A-Team fix earlier this year with the fun, derivative “The Losers.” So I walked into the theater feeling pretty, “meh” about it.
A-Team has one of the longest opening credit scenes I’ve seen in awhile. But it’s fun because we get to see how they first meet, before flash forwarding eight years where the team is now the army’s best assets during the golf war. Team leader Hannibal (Liam Neeson) penchant for coming up with over the top plans has gotten his boys out of unique situations. The Team is called in to do a black-ops mission for the CIA and of course they get burned.
The chemistry is why this movie works; the casting is post on, starting with newcomer, Ultimate Fighter Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson surprise casting as tough talking B.A. Baracus. He does Mr. T. proud. Rounding the team is The Hangover’s Bradley Cooper as the resident “con man” Face, and District 9’s Sharlto Copley as the team’s crazy pilot Murdoch. The group work together like a well-oiled machine. I never once didn’t buy these guys as their individual characters. In many ways The A-Team is the perfect show to bring to the big screen, the characters are well known, but not beloved so you have leeway to take liberties with the material.
Director Joe Carnahan does a great job of establishing the relationships and the dynamics of the team and getting all the big stuff correct. I loved the little nods to the source material like the use of original music, scenes of them building stuff and the great ending commercial that was ripped directly from the television show. Carnahan doesn’t have much of an eye for directing action, all of his action scenes were really generic and he used weird camera angles so it was hard to follow some of them.
The villains in this were cookie cutter and not interesting at all and they didn’t give Cooper much to do, we didn’t really get to see him be Face until the very end. We got the womanizer and the schemer, but I didn’t get the “con man” Face. Unless you count all of his interactions with the love of his life, DOD Investigator Captain Sosa played by Jessica Biel shows up. Biel and Cooper are good on screen.
The A-Team is that rare TV to Movie adaptation that works.
Final Grade B
EM Review by
Michelle Alexandria
Originally Posted 6.12.2010
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