Went to see The A-Team at the cinema tonight with a buddy. We were going to go see Inception, which I understand is quite good, but it was full, so that will have to wait until I’m back in Southampton.
Despite The A-Team‘s cultural significance and kitsch value, I’m not entirely convinced I’ve watched many—if any—episodes of the original TV series. Shameful, I know. Still, I can appreciate its ridiculousness and feel suitably aggrieved that it’s not Mr. T playing BA Baracas in the movie.
So, the movie then. It was surprisingly good. Not great, but pretty good. It dragged on a bit too long, if anything, but it looked good and had a great cast. Liam Neeson as Hannibal was very good, despite a shoddy script that saw him mentioning “plans” completely gratuitously, even for a master of planning such as himself. It’s good to see Bradley Cooper doing stuff again too; he made a good Face. Murdock and BA were pretty good, too; they had a good dynamic between them that worked well.
The story was utter nonsense and felt like it was ripped straight from a Call of Duty game. There were bad guys with motives that weren’t particularly clear, betrayals, backstabbings, a twist that defied all logic and lots and lots and lots of explosions and gunfights. It was spectacular in the same way that Modern Warfare 2 is; so long as you don’t even think about trying to analyse (or indeed understand) the plot. The writers clearly knew this, as there’s a terrible, terrible line in one scene that they deserve a punch in the face for. Nasty Bad Guy Man is watching a transmission of a missile approaching something it’s about to destroy (no spoilers here) and quips that “Man, this looks just like Call of Duty!”
No. Name-drops do not make you cool. Stop it.
One thing that struck me, though—and remember I’m speaking as someone who didn’t really watch the TV series here—the big-screen interpretation of the team’s activities seems a lot more violent than I expected. This is something of a pattern with modern-day remakes of classic franchises, I find—the violence and sexiness quotient tends to get beefed up somewhat. At times, certain scenes become unrecognisable from the source material and start looking just like any other action movie.
The A-Team was in danger of this happening on a number of occasions, but it kept just the right level of absurdity to keep things ticking along. Still, it would have been nice to see more in the way of improvised gadgetry (of which there is some) and less in the way of “OMG GUNS!”
That said, there’s a scene with a tank which is pretty 1) implausible and 2) hilarious.
In short, it’s a perfect summer movie. It’s pretty, it’s dumb and it’s a lot of fun. Go into it expecting some thoroughly shallow, thoroughly enjoyable entertainment and you won’t be disappointed.