A-Team, movie... thing. Discussion and Spoilers

[DarthPipes]

Spoiler: The Ending

But they didn't end up in prison again. That was the whole point of the ending. Just like in the original show, they're on the run; hiring themselves out as troubleshooters/mercenaries for people in need while evading the government who wants to put them behind bars. The only thing that's changed from the series is that this time it is for crimes they did commit. Hannibal even admits to that. It's their first imprisonment that they were innocent of.

It makes more sense for them to be able to do that now, though. The crimes they are wanted for -- mostly breaking out of federal prison that they were wrongly commited to -- isn't the kind of thing that demands massive manhunts. Sending one or two teams after them (probably Jessica Beal's little group) fits in a lot better. If it was the other way around -- and they were still wanted for the whole counterfeit plates thing -- it would be completely unbelievable for them to be as casual in their activities as they were in the original series. The movie fixed a lot of things that the series never addressed.

Spoiler: continued...

Very good points all around.

They did cause billions of dollars of damage though. I would have just let them work it off by way of military missions.

What they are actually accused of and why they are framed is actually very consistent with the TV show. In the show, they were arrested for robbing a bank and the commanding officer died.

 

[Danny99]

I went into this with trepidation as both Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper, along with most reviewers, had slammed it.

This was a popcorn flick, plain and simple. Those coming in looking for a plot that didn't include a lot of shooting were going to be disappointed. Of course the whole tank scene is unrealistic, but did anyone in the theatre care?

I was thoroughly impressed.

 

[barnaclelapse]

I haven't seen the film yet, but I absolutely love that I've been able to win every argument about the idea that it might be good simply by mentioning Liam Neeson.

 

[ManOnTheWave]

When Murdock is watching The Greater Escape, the credits not only read "Reginald Barclay", but also "G F Starbuck."

As for the film, I had low expectations, and found it watchable, mostly for Liam Neeson. It's one of those movies that is good if you metaphorically take you head off during the previews. A lot of it makes no sense, but if you ignore that, you'll have a good time. Rampage, however, is a horrible actor.

 

[RookieBatman]

It was pretty fun; good popcorn movie. The only thing I didn't like...

Spoiler: mild spoiler about the third act

Face taking over as leader for the third act. Hannibal not having a plan? It seemed like they were setting it up to not even have Hannibal in the next one.

But, other than that, it was pretty good. I laughed a lot. Didn't know to stay after the credits, though (I saw their names in the credits, but just thought I'd missed them). Has anyone seen that on Youtube? I guess we'll probably have to wait until it's on video.

 

[Mr Nighttime]

I saw it with my son who never has watched one episode of "The A-Team". He thought it was just okay. And I thought the same thing. For what it was, it was okay. Well worth the matinee price and spending a couple hours with my son.

My big gripe?

Nowhere in this movie do we have Hannible tossing watermelons out of a helicopter. WTF?

 

[Christopher]

When Murdock is watching The Greater Escape, the credits not only read "Reginald Barclay", but also "G F Starbuck."

Was there a Thomas Banacek or Paul Varjak? (George Peppard's other most notable characters.) Or a Clubber Lang or T. S. Turner?

 

[ManOnTheWave]

I only saw the two names and assumed it was because the two actors involved had agreed to do cameos (which I missed. Didn't hear any hype about staying after the credits.). The movie might bear watching again just to see if any such in-jokes are there. I didn't even think to look at ID tags or such. I don't recall any references to Peppard at all, which I found a tad disappointing. I know Mr. T disowned the remake, but you'd think someone in Hollywood would have fond memories of George Peppard. As was said up-thread, you'd think they'd at least have on of his movies playing on a tv in the background.

 

[Skywalker]

I absolutely loved it. I thought all Neeson, Cooper, Copley, and Jackson all did a great job, which surprised me because I wasn't expecting much from Jackson at all. They all had fantastic chemistry and worked well together.

And that tank scene was amazing.

 

[RookieBatman]

When Murdock is watching The Greater Escape, the credits not only read "Reginald Barclay", but also "G F Starbuck."

Was there a Thomas Banacek or Paul Varjak? (George Peppard's other most notable characters.) Or a Clubber Lang or T. S. Turner?

I was looking out for Banacek; I didn't see it. But then, I didn't see Starbuck, either.

 

[Captain Craig]

I don't have a lot of time so perhaps I'll read through the thread later. Just saw it a few hours ago.

They found the A-Team! was my vote and glad to see almost 60% voting agree.


I'm wondering if once I read through I'll find compaints like

• It started slow
• Was slow in the middle

If you recall all the action in an A-Team show was largely at the end. It's when they used that episodes $$$ for the real money shots.
I like how they show the team coming together and moving forward.
Loved the LA docks sequence
The falling, er directed fall/flight, of the tank

Overall a solid movie. Hollywood so typically finds ways to mess up these TV-to-Movie translations that I was worried.
Great cast, well executed script. It was what it set out to be and excelled at that.

Who stayed post credits to see the non-sequiter cameos from some of the TV cast?

 

[Danny99]

Who stayed post credits to see the non-sequiter cameos from some of the TV cast?

Girlfriend and I were going to stay, but the credits just took too long.

What happened to putting any bloopers or extra junk in a split screen next to the credits?

 

[Trekker4747]

The A-Team

Rated: PG-13

My Grade: B+

---------------------------------------------------

The A-Team is yet another in a long line of movie 'remakes" of old TV series. Instead of completely scrambling the premise (Miami Vice) going for tongue-in-cheek camp (Starsky and Hutch) or completely missing the idea of the original series and just going for vaugities and name-recognition (Dukes of Hazard) "The A-Team" tries to play straight and go for "true to the series" as possible with a new cast and setting,

The opening pre-title moments of the movie shows us a team of elite Army rangers being teamed up for the first time this includes Hannibal and aged and wise Army leader, Face a self-centered, slightly misogynistic playboy Army-man, and BA and be-mo-hawked former Army-man happenstance brings these three together and they seek out Murdoch a slightly-crazy pilot. Following the opening title sequence we flash-forward eight years to the military pulling out of Iraq (so this may, technically, make this movie Sci-Fi) and leaving the Iraqi military in charge with the aide of an American-installed non-military security force. Hannibal is enlisted by an Army commander to pull off one last, secret, mission to recover some stolen printing-plates for American $100 bills so Hannibal collects his team and they pull off one last job, the whole thing goes sour -they were somehow setup- and they get accused of stealing the plates on their own -since the "mission" was off the books, a few months later a security-force agent enlists Hannibal again to recover the plates and offers to help break the rest of the team out of their separate prisons. The team ends up on the run, somehow travel across international borders without any noticeable IDs, to recover the plates and hopefully clear their names.

The plot is a bit muddy, infact I'm not sure I completely understand what was going on. It's not that it was overly complicated (like the first M:I movie) it's just that it's pretty much secondary to characters' interactions and the action both of which the movies does pretty well. I've only vague memories of the TV series, though it's one I plan on getting on DVD sometime down the road, but overall I think the movie got the series mostly right. The movie didn't try and to camp it up, it didn't try to make it more than it was and t didn't miss the spirit and intent of the series. This movie simply brought the A-Team into the 21st century and kept the overall tone of the series. The cast is good, seems to play the characters veer well except for...

BA. Honestly, this isn't Quinton "Rampage" Johnson's fault. He had to fill Mr. T's huge shoes and, frankly, there's no way of doing it without either looking like a parody of Mr. T or looking like he's trying to hard. The first day on set the director probably just said to Quinton, "Dude. Don't even try." He does a good job but he just has so much to live up to I don't think he was able to come close. I will say he seemed to give BA tad more depth but, again, I was a kid the last time I saw any episode of the A-Team so I may be likely forgetting any depth given to the character. Being an '80s action movie I, frankly, can't see much depth being there. Liam Neeson is great as Hannibal (Seriously, why couldn't this guy bring such awesome to Qui-Gon?), Bradley Cooper is perfectly cast as the vain Face and I don't think I've seen Sharlto Copley in anything before but given his performance of Murdoch here I believe he may really be insane. Jessica Biel is good in her part as another military operative tracking the "A-Team" down but she's mostly here for her looks. She did an excellent job.

The movie was surprisingly good, but I had no pre-conceived notions about it and for all I know it missed the mark on the series completely. (IIRC they were pretty strongly against killing and in the movie quite a few people likely died as a result of the chaos these guys cause.) Really great were the "planning sessions" of their hijinks. Certainly a movie worth going to see.

 

[Harvey]

I don't think I've seen Sharlto Copley in anything before but given his performance of Face here I believe he may really be insane.

He's Wikus in District 9, which you've seen if I recall correctly.

 

[Trekker4747]

I don't think I've seen Sharlto Copley in anything before but given his performance of Face here I believe he may really be insane.

He's Wikus in District 9, which you've seen if I recall correctly.

Ah, Ok. He seemed familiar but I couldn't quite place him. Thanks.

 

[auntiehill]

I don't think I've seen Sharlto Copley in anything before but given his performance of Face here I believe he may really be insane.

You mean Murdock. Bradley Cooper played Face,

 

[Trekker4747]

I don't think I've seen Sharlto Copley in anything before but given his performance of Face here I believe he may really be insane.

You mean Murdock. Bradley Cooper played Face,

Yeah, I'm tired and I had brain-surgery a month ago, give me break.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

Who stayed post credits to see the non-sequiter cameos from some of the TV cast?

Girlfriend and I were going to stay, but the credits just took too long.

What happened to putting any bloopers or extra junk in a split screen next to the credits?

What happened to that little word "patience"?? I mean, the credits for the A-Team seemed shorter than most movies for some reason. On top of that, it seems more movies have their bonus scenes after the credits rather than during them. And have been for a LONG time. (Ferris Bueller? Master of the Universe anyone? Every Marvel movie ever made it seems?)

Anyways I stayed, I guess my time isn't THAT valuable. And was glad I did!

There were 2 seperate scenes at the end. The first shows Cooper in a towel getting ready go back into his tanning booth. Someone (we see him from the back) steps out, and Face asks him something like "Glad you kept it ready for me. Looking good, what's your secret?" And it's Dirk Benedict, who smiles and says "You just gotta take care of your Face."

The next scene was Howling Mad in a hospital, going through electro-shock therapy, but enjoying it. One of two presiding doctos is Dwight Shultz, and he asks the doctor next to him (paraphrasing) "Do you this guy is [does crazy tongue facial expressions] sort of crazy, or just nuts?" And then the power goes out, and Murdock on the table says something like "I think I felt something that time!".


Both were GREAT scenes, actually.

 

[Nardpuncher]

You cannot judge someone's level of patience from their waiting to the end of the credits. That's silly.

 

[Santaman]

Very fun for a remake, no dark bullshit or other "realistic" crap, Hannibal makes plans, Face is after the women, BA is angry and Murdock crazy so all in all I liked it, I hope they'll make some more.