OK, so it never really had much of a chance of living up to the standards of the original TV series and from the picture above and the trailer below it’s got cheese written all over it, but the The A-Team Movie (2010), had us pretty crazy about the whole thing for a number of very good reasons. Firstly, it introduced the yoof of today to the genius that was The A-Team, and that in itself was a good enough reason for the film.
Secondly, it had a couple of in-form actors to play the the massive roles. Liam “I will kill everyone in Paris to get the job done” Neeson plays Hannibal, and after his image spiked with his role in Taken expected him to be impressive. It also starred Bradley Cooper (Guardians Of The Galaxy) as Face, and again after impressing in The Hangover we had hoped that he’d do a pretty good job here too. While it didn’t exactly disappoint, it didn’t do enough to inspire a sequel, so we’ll probably have to wait another thirty years or so for another bite at the all bullets no kills cherry.
Release date
The A-Team Movie had its cinematic release date in the UK on the 30th July 2010, following its arrival in the US earlier in the year on the 11th June. The DVD, Blu-ray and digital download for the film made their way out in November 2010 with the former two containing directorial audio commentary and an A-Team theme mash up montage features.
Story
The plot is similar to the original, but updated to the modern day as the A-Team escape from military prison to go on a mission to clear their name and track down the US currency counterfeiting plates that had been used to set them up on the first place. They track the black market rig from Baghdad to Germany, but with an operation so significant they need to come up with an almighty plan to pull it off.
Cast
In addition to Neeson and Cooper, The A-Team Movie also stars Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson who has pretty big boots to fill as B.A. Baracus and Sharlto Copley who takes on the madness of air man Murdoch. Jessica Biel hots things up as Lt. Dirk Benedict and Dwight Shaltz, who played Face and Murdoch, put in a minor cameo to cap the film, so there’s a fair amount of TV series creator, Stephen J. Cannell’s legacy wrapped up in The A-Team Movie project… I love it when a plan comes together.
Production
The film was directed by Joe Carnahan, who’s previous credits include The Blacklist, The Grey and Smokin’ Aces. It was also written by Carnahan, along with Brian Bloom, who worked together previously on Smokin’ Aces, and Skip Woods (Hitman: Agent 47). It was produced by Stephen J. Cannell, Spike Seldin, Tony Scott, Jules Daly, Alex Young and Iain Smith and the executive producers were Ridley Scott (The Martian), Marc Silvestri, Ross Fanger.
Review
While The A-Team Movie doesn’t quite live up to the standards of the original TV series starring George Peppard, Mr T, Dirk Benedict and Dwight Schultz, it’s not a terrible action adventure. The cast fit the roles well enough and the plot moves things along at a decent enough pace. If we’re honest it just needed a bit more time, effort and quality in production and it could have been something special.
 release date, plot and trailer from the Tuppence Magazine film section, including info about the cast with Liam Neeson as Hannibal.){kind=link}