The A-Team [DVD]

There's 50% of a good movie here. In fact, everything is 50% of what it could be, really. The characterisation is 50%. The rambling and overlong story is 50%. The onscreen chemistry is 50%. The action set pieces feel oddly dull and unexciting—50% of what they might be.The impression I got is that everybody was doing this somewhat begrudgingly to pay off a debt, or something like that. Perhaps they signed up for a different movie idea, and it got switched to this late in the day, so nobody was entirely happy. There's a weird vibe. Nothing's what it should be.It's the characters and chemistry that are the major failing. Liam Neeson is epically miscast as Hannibal. It's worth mentioning that George Peppard was also miscast in the TV show, all things considered (a charming romantic lead playing a grizzled colonel?). But Peppard in such a role didn't matter because it was just a TV show. A small screen doesn't need filling as much as a big screen does.And Neeson just fails to fill anything. Not even his trousers, which look like they may fall down at any given moment. He looks weedy. In the same cream shirt as Peppard, he looks like an photocopier repairman who got mixed up with some soliders of fortune (and I suppose they MIGHT need their photocopier fixing on occasion).Another big issue is that it's impossible to care about the characters.There is a commendable effort to give BA a back story. But it comes out of nowhere and therefore makes little sense. But this was a move in the right direction. Just like Spock was the more interesting character compared to the heroic Kirk in Star Trek, it's BA in the A-Team who had the most promise for back story (never delivered in the TV show, of course). If I could go back in time, I would tell them to make this movie BA's story arc. Start with him and his origin story. Let him find Hannibal. Give him a struggle to overcome. End with his vindication. That would give this movie some much-needed heart and soul.And there's also the fact they abandoned most of what made the A-Team so unique. They aren't soldiers of fortune. They don't fight for the cause of others in order to restore justice (spoiler alert: they fight for themselves and to enact revenge).Although they do make things out of found materials, they never get trapped anywhere and therefore have to use their ingenuity and engineering to get out. I mean, come on! That was the pay dirt each week—the reason why we watched the TV show!They had one simple task: Take what was great from a TV show, and put it on the big screen. What they did was take nothing but the characters and... Well, make a mess. It could've been so much better.

Just what I wanted for a Saturday evening - a group of actors having fun, blowing stuff up and a decent interesting story.

The `A-Team' film is a very different beast to the TV series, but it is no less entertaining.This is a film that you need to suspend disbelief for to fully enjoy as it has the most ridiculous and outlandish plots, scenes and stunts that you could quite easily ruin this for yourself by being too incredulous. Most of the action in this film is pure fantasy, but the explosions, stunts, one liners and execution more than makes up for this.Following the gulf war the A-Team have to recover some stolen money minting plates and clear their name after they are framed for a murder and the original theft of said plates. You see how they track down their enemy and how they are double crossed and betrayed by those they have had to trust. Pretty much your standard action film fare.Liam Neeson has the most ridiculous accent going, but if you can not let this annoy you too much you should be ok. Bradley Cooper is a credible Face and manages to be reminiscent of the TV series character whilst bringing his own style to the role. This also applies to Quinton "Rampage" Jackson who plays BA Baracus. The gold jewellery is missing, but the same attitude is there. My favourite has to be Murdoch who manages to come out with some hilarious lines and stops the film from taking itself too seriously. His impression of Mel Gibson in Braveheart had me howling!This film also offers plenty of their trademark DIY adaptations and gadgets, as well as a brief appearance from the black and red GMC.This is a perfectly enjoyable action film and as long as you don't compare it to the original TV series, or take the stunts or credibility of the action too seriously, you can enjoy this for it's duration. It's a good, but not great film, but still worth a watch.Feel free to check out my blog which can be found on my profile page.

A good fun watch overall. A great reboot with cracking cast members.

I need the A-Team.I'm serious.

Like a couple of other reviewers on here, I also saw the trailer for The A-Team at the cinema and thought 'hmm, I might have to give that one a wide berth'.Having been on a long flight recently though (I ain't getting on no plane - which is actually a double negative, so I did get on the plane in the end) with limited viewing options, I selected to watch the A-Team and I absolutely loved every minute of it.In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I ordered the blu-ray upon my return and must have watched it a stack of times over the past few weeks, enjoying it more and more with each viewing. It is just excellent fun with some fantastic action sequences to boot! Some of the dialogue between the main characters (mostly involving Murdoch) is also genuinely extremely funny.From another big fan of the 80s tv show, it was just great to see such an excellent conversion to the big screen and a reminder why we loved these characters from the original series.So, hang your brain on a hook for a couple of hours and enjoy the one of the best movies (for me anyway) of 2010.