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I pity the fool who expects the movie version of "The
A-Team" to perfectly reflect the original TV series. A big,
broad, messy love letter of a movie to the TV show "The
A-Team" may be a narrative mess but it is entertaining and
it's just like watching a tank crash...a car crash. Directed
and co-written by Joe Carnahan ("Narc", "Smokin' Aces"),
"The A-Team" works primarily because of the charm of the
cast and the non-stop action. In this version of "The A
Team" the "A" truly stands for "action". ***
When Hannibal Smith (Liam Neeson)and his group of Air
Rangers "Face" (Bradley Cooper), "B.A." (Quinton Jackson)
and Murdock (Sharlto Copley of "District 9")are framed for
stealing conterfeit plates in Iraq all four are court martialed
and thrown into prison. The four find an unlikely ally in
a rogue CIA agent named Lynch (Patrick Wilson)who helps
them break out of prison to locate the plates and the man
who stole them--Pike (Brian Bloom). The A-Team has to stay
ahead of Face's former girlfriend Lt. Sosa (Jessica Biel)who
with her team are hot on the trial of the team but suspects
that they are innocent. The team must figure out where Pike
is and the plates in order to exonerate themselves. Watch
for an entertaining cameo from Jon Ham ("Madmen") at the
conclusion of the film and the marvelous character actor
Henry Czerny ("Mission: Impossible") who needs to be utilized
better by Hollywood as he's a terrific character actor.
Keep an eye out for two cast members of the original series
after the credits roll in a nice homage to the TV show.
The main flaw with the film is that the writers and director
have to set up the entire premise AND break them out, resolve
who framed them and keep it moving/entertaining the entire
two hours. It's a daunting task and I'd never accuse someone
of trying to stuff too much plot into a movie but with this
much action it's very very difficult to try and set up action
set pieces, develop characters and resolve a convoluted
plot in one movie. If there had been a guarantee of a sequel
they might have been able to carry their search for who
set them up for other films and allowed a bit more breathing
room for the plot. ---
Image & Sound:
The Blu-ray for "The A-Team" looks quite nice with
a sharp looking transfer, nicely detailed transfer that
has a nice film-like quality in its presentation. I didn't
detect any digital artifacts from excessive compression
or over agressive use of digital grain management. Skin
textures look quite nice throughout the film. ***
The Lossless audio track sounds marvelous and there's
almost as much (maybe too much) activity during the action
sequences in the audio department and there is going on
visually. That could be a bad thing if you only listen to
the sound in stereo so I would definitely listen to the
track in 5.1 as dialog may have a tendancy to get lost with
all the sounds. ---
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