The A-Team Blu-Ray Review

• 1st Dec 2010

Here we have the latest hit TV series of yesteryear to be brought out of mothballs, dusted off and given that oh so ‘new millennium’ of treatments, the re-boot. It is presented here in triple play Blu-Ray DVD format (more about that later).

Hollywood has always been aware of the money making potential of sequels, remakes and re-imaginings of existing intellectual properties. It’s not rocket science but the results do vary. In recent years this has, more often than not, taken the form of what has become known as the re-boot. The recipe is simple enough: take an existing, once successful franchise that is either long dead (think Battlestar Galactica), or has run out of steam (think Star Trek movies) and start again with a clean slate. Standard procedure is to jettison all but the most basic original premise points upon which to build the new property. The best of these re-boots honour the legacy and memory of the original (while not being bound by it) and simultaneously appeal to a new modern audience and the core fan base alike. Sounds simple, but in practice produces a very mixed bag of results. For every Batman Begins there are dozens of Catwomans (i.e. many attempts that fall somewhat short of scintillating.)

The trouble is, even below average re-boot movies can still make decent money if the original legacy property has enough of a draw to at least get bums on seats (even if said bottom then proceeds to hate the new incarnation of their cherished movie/show). By that rationale The A-Team has the best possible foundation upon which to build a re-booted franchise in film format.

Let me begin by saying that I was not the biggest fan of the Stephen J Cannell original 80s TV series. My subjective memory places me as being too old for it, yet I was only eleven when it hit UK screens and barely 15 by the time it was all over. In reality, I was pretty much slap bang perfect for the show’s targeted Saturday morning demographic. However, the feeling remains that I quickly dismissed it as ‘just for kids’ and outgrew it.

Strange? I’m not so sure. I suspect that maybe, ‘quickly outgrowing it’ is exactly how the A-Team tended to work for most people. The show reels you in easily enough with the high octane mix of action, guns, explosions and the coolest van in TV history, plus of course the magnetism of Mr. T’s singular personality. But perhaps unable to hold on to you for an extended period due to the law of diminishing returns built into to the DNA of the show. After all, it was one of the most truly episodic of TV shows, with very little in the way of a developing story arc. So once you’ve seen maybe six or seven episodes, you’ve pretty much seen all that there was on offer. I don’t mean to be disingenuous as clearly the show has achieved and maintained massive ‘cult’ status all these years. It remains a treasured part of many people’s childhoods in a similar way perhaps to Transformers. But I think it’s fair to say that this affection is perhaps more about the van and Mr. T, than story arc or character development. It was with this in mind that I approached this particular re-boot quite carefully.

Casting was always going to be key with this movie and I think the producers had to make some really tough decisions regarding the principals, especially B.A. When I first saw the trailer and realised Liam Neeson had been cast as Colonel John ‘Hannibal’ Smith, my initial reaction was quite negative. I like Neeson and think he’s a great actor, but he just seemed as far from George Peppard (original TV Hannibal) as you could get. It felt like a bad omen for the movie. However, nothing was gonna divide opinion like the casting of Bosco Albert ‘B.A.’ Baracus. Mr. T was such a wonderfully over the top character himself, that there would be no viable way in 2010 to cast someone to recreate ‘that’ exact role. The producers would instead be forced to do what they often do anyway and re-imagine the character differently. That’s a risky move of course (particularly with fan favourite B.A.), as you do not want to alienate your existing core fan base by changing the important things too much. So with B.A.; out went the mountainous gold bling, feather earrings and dungarees and in came MMA fighter Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson. Jackson does a respectable, if slightly forgettable, job with what he has to work with. He looks a good thirty pounds light on Mr. T though, and is not of bodybuilder/bouncer dimensions in the way Mr. T was. Don’t get me wrong, Jackson is physically intimidating enough, but somehow lacks a little of the pumped up bulging muscularity of Mr. T’s B.A. His physique is of a different, less visually impressive type. Wisely they did choose to keep B.A.’s Mohawk and beard chops which; like the gold bling was really more of a Mr. T attribute than a specifically B.A. one. However, the two being so inseparable it’s totally essential to sell Rampage as Baracus. The rest of the principal casting was in my opinion very intelligent. Bradley Cooper’s Templeton ‘Face’ Peck is a perfect modern reinterpretation of the original. He has the charm and blue eyed good looks, but with the added muscle and toughness appropriate for the character’s military believability and Sharlto Copley’s ‘Murdock’ is gonna be a like or loathe character just like the original was. Copley’s Murdock is very different, with a lot of his madness being generated behind the eyes instead of in the crazy ticks and pops of Dwight Schultz’s original. I think it works very well and I really like his interpretation of the character. The supporting cast is competent and functional. Plus, I found it hilarious that Jessica Biel’s fairly straight laced character runs around in four inch stiletto heels for most of the movie.

Director Joe Carnahan sets his movie up as a kind of origin story, with Hannibal and Face already working ops together. But then randomly meeting B.A. (in his famous van), and then Murdoch (in the obligatory loony bin that has a chopper to steal). All of them, of course, happen to be crack Airborne Rangers. It’s contrived yes, but at least it all happens nice and quick so you don’t get time to really ponder the sillier details. At this point the van gets crushed never to reappear and the newly formed foursome make their escape via the aforementioned helicopter. We then fast forward a bunch of years and many successful missions as an operational ‘A’ team, until we get to a middle eastern covert mission that becomes ‘the crime they didn’t commit’ mentioned in the voice over of the original series. A secret operation that ends in all four of them being framed and sent to jail. The rest of the movie is basically an attempt to prove their innocence of the original crime and reveal the true bad guys while everyone chases the MacGuffin (in this case some US dollar printing plates).

The movie is set at a pretty fast pace and the first half rolls by very well. I really enjoyed the introduction and set-up of the main characters and situations. The very first chopper ride with Murdoch does offer a taste of the reality level of things to come though. He pulls a few manoeuvres that seem to defy the laws of physics and aeronautics. It’s used as a neat way of tying B.A.’s fear of flying to an actual event though, so a little dramatic licence is forgivable. It’s when the gang eventually escape from prison and steal a C130 cargo plane that the movie takes a dramatic downward dive (literally as well as figuratively). Up until this point, the suspension of disbelief was just about holding steady and one is able to really enjoy the movie and accept the situations (with brain firmly left out of the equation of course). After this point we have a serious case of ‘nuking the fridge’ to contend with. Our heroes escaping from the (now exploding) C130 inside the battle tank it was transporting…..ahem!

Wait, there’s more…..

They proceed to then ‘fly’ the TANK (steering with the turret gun) down to a safe splash down in a lake and then drive it out onto the shore…..hmmmmmm! Whatever you want to call it; nuking the fridge, or jumping the shark – the movie cannot recover any credibility from this moment on, and it’s now all downhill. The final set piece is huge and just as absurd, but even those giving the movie as much latitude as possible might well have mentally divorced themselves from it by then. Like all re-boots, The A-Team tries to strike the right balance between recognisable cues from the original series and new elements. For example: people do die in the movie but not often ‘on screen’ (a reference surely to the original series’ amazing ability to discharge thousands of rounds of ammunition without anyone being hit!!). There is also clandestine construction and metalworking too, but we are not treated to that classic A-Team cliché of the cobbled together armoured farm vehicle saving the day!

We get Mike Post & Pete Carpenter’s classic A-Team theme, and not just in predictable remix form either. Also on the plus side, my worries about Neeson were dispelled quickly, he makes a good fist of bringing his heavyweight acting gravitas to the role, and we accept him as Hannibal quite quickly. Direction is sharp and fast, but not overly jump cut infested. Lighting is thoughtful and imaginative in places. It’s almost as if the combined presence of both Scott brothers (Ridley and Tony in exec prod mode) allowed for some of the best qualities if both to come through into Carnahan’s work. The movie leaves us with Hannibal & co set to become the soldiers of fortune on the run we know from the TV original series.

OK, so to the Blu-Ray itself.

The transfer is not the best I’ve ever seen and this slight graininess seems to affect the faster FX laden scenes most. Definition and clarity is much better on wide shots and close ups, some establishing skyline vistas in particular look really impressive. Switching to the (included) standard def DVD for a quick comparison test reveals just how far we’ve come in our expectations as it looked quite fuzzy and indistinct. I think we are in one of those transitionary periods where many of us have now got used to the Hi-Def Blu-ray level of performance, with this fast becoming the new median. Rendering standard def DVD almost un-watchable by comparison.

As mentioned earlier this Blu-Ray edition comes presented as a ‘triple play’ pack. This means three discs are included: The Blu-Ray disc (carrying both theatrical and a fairly pointless extended version), plus the extras (more on those in a moment). You also get the standard def DVD and yet a third disc for creating a digital copy in your computer. Personally, I have no real use for the standard def DVD (other than the comparison test I mentioned earlier). However I welcome the digital copy option so I can easily put the movie on MacBook and iPhone. Other people may have different priorities of course so I think the triple play idea is sound as long as it isn’t used to make up for a shortfall in other areas (like special features).

Speaking of which: extras on the disc are pretty good. You get a couple of decent documentaries and some SFX breakdown stuff, deleted scenes and a gag reel. All fairly standard issue but satisfying enough to not feel too short changed.

A good Blu-Ray package then and a movie that’s certainly a game of two halves. Overall though, still an enjoyable enough ride. Personally, I could not come back from the flying tank scene, but hey! The A-Team never was the most realistic of shows was it?

Ben Pegley