Review of The A-Team (2010) by Nick M — 09 Jan 2012

I loved (and I mean loved) the series, I used to watch it at my Nan's house before my parents got a T.V. As a kid, they were my heroes and there was nothing that excited me more than hearing that theme music.

Even now I enjoy viewing episodes and one day hope to own the collector's edition complete box set. So the movie makers were doing the equivalent of repainting the Mona Lisa as far as I'm concerned.

And you know what? They didn't do a bad job of it. Other classic T.V. shows turned into movies were ruined by being turned into 'knowing' comedies starring *&%ts like Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson in 'Starsky and Hutch'.

The A-Team film was most likely saved by having Stephen J. Cannell, co-creator of the series, on board. All the characters were cast well and are played to the max. Quinton Jackson isn't an actor by normal trade but he makes a better one than most athletes turned thespians.

Of course, he doesn't match the over the top silliness charm of Mr. T (who incidentally didn't like the movie). Most importantly, Murdoch (my favourite character in the show) was done justice by Sharlto Copley.

The action is sharp and the whole film makes good use of it's almost two hour's play length. Indeed, I was surprised when I saw the time as it felt shorter when viewing. Now the flaws; action sequences suffer from too many scene cuts.

Yes, I understand that they want to keep the pace up but I do want to be able to see a scene for more than a couple of seconds before we switch to another. The romance between Cooper and Biel's characters was too much of a deviation from the original from me (Face never had on-off relationship with anyone in the show), and I would have liked it if the movie had been about them pulling off an impossible rescue mission or protecting small businesses against the mob like the team did weekly in the series, instead of being all about clearing their names.

Saying that, there is obviously going to be a sequel along those lines so I can't complain much. My advice is go see this film if you want to be entertained and you won't be disappointed.