Review of The A-Team (2010) by Liam C — 12 May 2015

The great thing about this film is that it doesn't try to be anything it shouldn't be, it doesn't grit it all up just because it's a adaptation of an old property, it absolutely knows what it is and has a blast with it.

This film starts off a lot differently than I expected, seeing as how we are introduced to our first two characters who just so happen to be in the same country at the same time seemed coincidental but seeing as how they didn't know each other and the opening is how they meet, I liked it. Even though the opening credits seemed oddly long, at first just seeing Patrick Wilson's name randomly pop up on screen as some time went by was odd, the opening for this film was very great and the way it introduces the characters and ends with them all on screen was great. Like I said, the humour was great and I managed to follow the story relatively well and the film also has a great amount of good lines, which I wouldn't call attention to but considering Skip Woods had some involvement in this, I think it is important. His screenplays are always convoluted and make absolutely no sense at all, but like I said, I found it actually funny and relatively easy to follow, so I don't know what he did but did this film need 3 writers? Joe Carnahan knows what he's doing and has done good scripts before, this was Brian Bloom's first and only writing credit thus far and I really don't want to believe Woods came in as a script doctor or something, maybe he did just do the littlest bits that really didn't make much sense within the story, which wasn't much, thankfully. The film also has a very great look and is just great to look at.

As surprising as it might sound, the film has its seriously moments and they really work well. I know it's part of the series but I really did enjoy watching them plan out what they were going to do, and revealing it to us in more detail when we watch it later or when it's edited to show them planning then doing it at the same time, it was nice. Like I said, the film has great lines as well, one I liked was, 'old habits may die hard, but they gotta die', of course all the classic phrases as well, but at the end when it looks like Hannibal winks at the camera I thought he would say his line again. There was a nice reference to Mr. T's catchphrase but it's still so strange to know it came from a Rocky sequel. Sharlto Copley had so many great lines, like the 'freedom' or when he was on his helicopter spinning around, which when I saw that clip looked like it was after a battle. He also says something to someone about South Africa at one point when the other characters are trying to do something, which might have been coincidental, but was nice still a nice addition, and I thought he would have said, 'I didn't inject him yet' in that scene when Baracus falls over with the other two catching up.

The cast for this film is excellent, I remember seeing pictures of this film when it came out and thinking Cooper was out of place with his smiling face on the front cover but he fits really well into this group. Everyone else is excellent also, Patrick Wilson and Jessica Biel are great additions and the cast is just excellent through and through; at one point Wilson's character talks about Call of Duty and Brian Bloom is in this and I am surprised he doesn't have more live action roles because he is absolutely great in his role, I'm sure he probably loved it and was extra great for that reason, and I thought he would have said a casual, 'sure', the the part about the second chances. I know he was a smaller name but Sharlto Copley was always at the back of the posters for this film but on the Facebook page he's closer to the front and in the film when they all show them on screen at the start, they made it fair. I also thought I saw Aaron Eckhart in that courtroom scene, even though I remembered he wasn't in the cast; in that scene I thought they'd make a joke about being tried separately and apparently one does want to be tried separately, which seems weird now given the nature of that scene and the fact that it seems that the person who said that doesn't seem to be one with the group and thinking about if he said he wanted to be tried separately, you would have thought that they would have brought it up later. In the part when they are infiltrating, Liam Neeson has his normal coloured hair and it's odd to see after all that has been going on; and at the very start when the gun won't work I thought it'd be because the gun was fit just for him or something, but it wraps around with the end of the film very nicely and in a satisfying way.

The only thing I could think of as a negative is that the classic van gets destroyed at the start, which does seem like a wink to the audience, but still. However, throughout the film there were quite a few lines that I couldn't hear properly. There's a censored song at the start when Baracus is in his car but it fits the scene and later on when he returns and the music cues up when he takes off his mask, it looks like he should have said something then. There was also a part near the end when Hannibal got shot and from the way it was edited it looked like he really could have moved out of the way. It was also odd to not have the theme song play that plays in the final screen to over to the credits and I thought it odd that all of The A-Team had top billing.

I remember when this film was announced and wondering why Mr T. wasn't involved and even though Schultz and Benedict were in this in small parts, they said they regretted it and you'd probably notice Mr. T. a mile off if he was in this somewhere. There was a point where a character says that another character 'is a cartoon character' and I feel like they sums up the film very well, this film just had a great fun spirit about it and knew exactly what it was, which is all it needed to do. This pace of this film is excellent and I was honestly surprised when the film finished because it felt like no time had passed at all, which is an excellent compliment for a film. While a sequel won't happen, even though the fan following for this film has grown a lot over the years and seeing these characters in this light would be fun to see again, I'm somewhat glad as this is a great final hurrah to a classic, iconic show, as well as a great re-imagining for modern times that can stand on its own and not be turned into something it's not by the studios. I had been wanting to see this for a while and I'm glad that I finally have, it is a lot of fun and that's all it needed to be.