The A-Team

[Iron Past]

Seeing it this Friday, very excited. What's funny is, while there's very few reviews out yet, the Hollywood Reporter one (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film-reviews/the-a-team-film-review-1004097107.story) had this quote pulled for Metacritic (http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/ateam):

The film seems nearly writer-free. Absolutely no time gets wasted on story, character development or logic.

Now, they gave the film a Poor rating (the others are much more positive right now), but personally I think that sold me on the movie even more. Who's with me? Also, I loved Smokin' Aces, so Joe Carnahan is alright by me.

[fitbabits]

I am cautiously optimistic on this, with the emphasis on cautiously - although I expect The Expendables to be more fulfilling.

[KillerMcDead]

A friend of mine has never seen an episode of the A-team. We saw the commercial for the film the other night. Right around the time Face is shooting the .50cal from the Tank whilst parachuting from an exploding airplane he was quoted as saying "Come on man, wtf"

I said if it were any other movie, I'd probably agree with him.

[Esquilax1138]

I found both Crank movies to be entertaining, so I'm sure i'll have no troubles with this. Plot and character development can be skipped if you blow enough shit up.

[nnanji]

Dumbest looking movie I've ever had the misfortune of sitting through a trailer for. The only possible exception would be if the movie ended with them all dying, and then Mr. T walks on screen and tells the kids that he pities the fool that tries these stunts at home.

[Narradisall]

I've never been an A-Team person, don't think I've ever seen a whole episode. Not interested in this film at all, but if I did go see it, judging from the trailer, I imagine I would take the 'Michael Bay' approach.

If you're going to see the film for plot, character developement and well writting dialogue, you're probably doing it wrong.

[Khrymsyn]

If you're going to see the film for plot, character developement and well writting dialogue, you're probably doing it wrong.

Which is basically the same thing that could be said about a LOT of the original TV series... which is why some of us are really looking forward to it.

If I were to boil it down in what I expect from a proper homage to the original series, I think it should contain :

1) Pitying fools
2) Creating backyard/garage/trash parts based weaponry... think MacGuyver with more "boom"
3) Jeeps flipping over for no apparent reason
4) Loving when plans come together
5) Enough ammunition spent to have supplied all of WWII, but never actually seeing anyone get shot (this one I have a feeling will be broken)
6) B.A. not gettin on no plane, Hannibal.
7) Explosions to make the Mythbusters proud.
8) Completely non-sensicle reason for the A-Team to be doing/located with whatever/wherever they are involved in.
9) Murdock = Nutz... but in a "I'm so insane I'm lucid" kind of way.
10) Cylons. (Ok, this one I could give a pass to, but that part of the introduction always amused me. =) )


Truthfully, nothing I saw in the trailer made me think that any of this is impossible. So I'm definitely keeping my fingers crossed for some amusement. =)

[Narradisall]

Then fair enough. If it's living up to the explosive TV series with little or no logic, then I don't see the problem.

It's at least being consistant with the source material. It's a popcorn film, so enjoy. If you want Schindelers List you're probably better off going to see something else.

[Crowe]

This movie was a complete fucking mess. I love action movies, and I expected to at least get a kick from the action scenes. All I recieved was 2 hours of LOUD, close up camera shots with lightning fast editing. At least Michael Bay does a decent action movie, Bad Boys 2 as a great example.


I am struggling to remember the funny scenes, and I can recall not one action scene I thought was cool. This show was awesome on TV, it belongs on TV.

[DarkDay]

Ill rent it, for action moives theres till hope. It comes in the form of The Expendables.

[Kagger]

Absolutely LOVED it. 10 years ago my dad, brother and I were talking about the rumors to this movie.

The casting was near perfect. Face and Murdock were FANTASTIC. Liam Neeson did a suitable Hannibal, and Rampage was better than I thought he'd be.

What I loved about this movie was it never tried to be more than the A-Team tv show was. The Transformers movies were ruined for me because tried to be way to serious considering they were based off glorified advertisements. As cheesy as the GI joe was it never tried to be more than a live action 80's cartoon. It could have been very easy to try to make this movie as serious as the Bourne movies, but that would clash with the craziness of the characters.

Again, for an action movie based off a TV show, I felt there was great character growth. Face and BA were very well done. Hannibal to an extent, and Murdock just got crazier and crazier.

If you loved the show, I can't recommend it enough. There's never a lull. The introduction is about 1/4 of the movie and it was good enough to be a finale in some movies.

If you think that a movie that throws realism out the window and never tries to be deeper than its source material is frustrating, then by all means skip it. But this movie was a fantastic A-Team film.

[KillerMcDead]

Saw it last night. Loved it. The action can get a bit shaky-cam at times, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Would definitely recommend it to A-team fans.

[Iron Past]

Yes, very good, definitely what I was hoping it would be. I think Kagger hit the nail on the head, and you already know if you're going to like this or not. The only complaints I had were there's a couple minutes before the last big set-piece that were extremely goofy and didn't fit into the film at all, and while I didn't mind the shacky cam in general, there were a few places where it was way too close to the action.

I feel this was almost a comedy first and action movie second. Some of the exposition drags on a bit, but it never takes the focus off the characters and never looses its sense of style (like, say, Repo Men and The Losers). Stick around after the credits for a couple fun cameos.

[Khrymsyn]

Saw the movie, and since I gave myself a handy dandy scoresheet earlier, I might as well use it...


1) Pitying fools Check
2) Creating backyard/garage/trash parts based weaponry... Check
3) Jeeps flipping over for no apparent reason Check
4) Loving when plans come together Check
5) Enough ammunition spent to have supplied all of WWII, but never actually seeing anyone get shot Negavite - However, almost true
6) B.A. not gettin on no plane, Hannibal. Check
7) Explosions to make the Mythbusters proud. Check
8) Completely non-sensical reason for the A-Team to be doing/located with whatever/wherever they are involved in. Check - Ok, granted, it probably had more plot than a TV episode, but seriously? Overall silly. Not in a bad way.
9) Murdock = Nutz... Big Effing Check - Dude from District9 was awesome!
10) Cylons. Negavite - though, never expected this one to be true. lol

Final Movie vs. TV (expectations score) : 8 of 10!

Seriously, if all you're looking for is a dumb, fun, exploding movie. This totally fits the bill and I enjoyed the heck out of it. =)

[Inspector Fowler]

Aside from the shitty camera/editing (this is the norm in Hollywood these days, I guess), I felt like it was a pretty average action flick. It felt like it was designed by a committee, each member of which wanted to include certain "must haves" for the A-Team.

But it was an okay popcorn movie, which is really all I expected. It's not like I was expecting the action movie of my life out of the A-Team.

[cppcrusader]

I saw it last night and absolutely loved it. The casting was perfect and it all stayed true to the spirit of the show. I was a little concerned during the beginning that they were drastically altering the origin of the team but then the movie continued and I realized they didn't.

My only criticism was that there was no talk of being on the jazz. Perhaps we'll get that in a sequel, which I do hope is in the works.

[OrangePulp]

Did we watch the same movie? Holy mother of god this was a pile of shit. I enjoy mindless action films, but if you're not going to have a real plot, just cut out all your dialogue. And then all the stuff that doesn't make sense:

Apparently turning off your helicopter's engine removes all heat signature from your helicopter. Also, cargo ships are packed full of semtex, so that when they're shot with one anti-tank rocket, they explode in gouts of flame. I could really go on and on here.

There's so much brain poison in this movie, the director and writer should be lined up in front of a firing squad.

[anakin876]

The A-team was never about realism. I found the movie to be goofy and fun. None of the criticisms are wrong - there was plenty of nonsense and foolishness - but if you can suspend your disbelief the movie can be really enjoyable. There's one point that makes any movie (or TV show) based on this even remotely believable - Murdock. He never could get away with being crazy enough to dodge military prison, but not so crazy as to be incapable of functioning with the team. If you can believe he exists, the rest falls into place.

[TheKeck]

Interesting. A buddy at work was raving about how much he loved it. Sounds like a definite hate it or love it kind of show. Can't really say which side I'd fall on.

[Karak]

Wow. amazing. I haven't seen that much love for a movie in a long time. It was nice to leave a movie and actually hear clapping for the first time in some time in my area.
I was doubly surprised that the 5 women who went adored it. Laughter, good action, the planning phase from every TV show. Just a good damn movie.

[Philonious]

I thought it was great: And surprisingly so did my girlfriend who I pretty much had to drag. Just plain stupid fun. Cooper and Copley (and Wilson and Secret-Cameo) were fantastic. My ONLY complaint had to do with the over-the-top CGI climax which was a little too much (well that and the freezing theatre), but otherwise I really enjoyed myself.

And the stupid fun comment isn't the action movie cop-out stupid, but that everyone involved seemed to be having fun with it and the action sequences are ridiculous. It is a shame that it got trounced by Kung Foo Fresh Prince Jr.

[Karak]

It is a shame that it got trounced by Kung Foo Fresh Prince Jr.

Which I saw and was terrible. I mean GROAN inducing and even the kids weren't enjoying it. I went to a-team thinking it would be ok, and Karate Kid stoked to take my nephew. Both surprised in good and bad ways. But the new Karate Kid is like MS E3 Conference bad. Jezuz.
My Nephew and I did enjoy the 4 boxes of sour patch kids though.

[zarathstra]

Big, dumb, explodey. Everything I wanted it to be.

[Khrymsyn]

Did we watch the same movie? Holy mother of god this was a pile of shit. I enjoy mindless action films, but if you're not going to have a real plot, just cut out all your dialogue. And then all the stuff that doesn't make sense:

Apparently turning off your helicopter's engine removes all heat signature from your helicopter. Also, cargo ships are packed full of semtex, so that when they're shot with one anti-tank rocket, they explode in gouts of flame. I could really go on and on here.

There's so much brain poison in this movie, the director and writer should be lined up in front of a firing squad.

Can I ask where in the A-Team television show you would have gotten the impression of realism? They would be running from the law, crash into some guy's garage, and find enough spare parts in there to convert BA's GMC into an armored vehicle complete with rocket launcher. It was a big dumb explodey TV show, turned into a big dumb explodey movie.

Some people like Forza and Gran Turismo... some people like Blur and Burnout. And some people like both.

[Inspector Fowler]

During the helicopter scene I had to make a conscious decision not to judge the movie on that kind of stuff. There were some good one-liners, and I thought the individual characters were okay. Overall, though, to me it just felt like a lot of disparate elements being thrown together. I thought it could have been more without taking away any of the slapdash tomfoolery the A-Team is known for.