REVIEW: The A-Team (2010 Film)

By Dayton Ward

A while back, I was asked by the good folks at ComicMix to submit myself to watching the “complete” Blue Thunder TV series in honor of its release on Blu-ray. Although I was and remain a fan of the original 1983 film on which the series is based, I’d never seen the show
and that was a good enough reason for me to tackle a review.

I guess they liked that one, as they reached out again and asked me to do another one. This time, I was asked to review a recently released Blu-ray edition of the 2010 big-screen adaptation of the classic 1980s TV series The A-Team. I’d seen the film when it hit theaters way back when, and I even bought the “extended edition” Blu-ray when it was released several months later. At first I thought, “Is this a new release? Maybe an upgrade? More special features? Who knows?”

But when I did some digging, I discovered a later Blu-ray release…in 2016. So far as I could tell, there was no new release slated for this year, but thinking it could just be a mixup, I still asked the ComicMix folks to send it on and we’d figure it out. Upon its arrival, I confirmed from the marketing copy on the back of the case that this was indeed a 2016 release. The only real difference was that my original 2010 purchase came with a “digital copy,” which in those days arrived on an extra disc packaged with the movie disc, and you copied the movie file to your computer. This more recent release didn’t have any sort of digital copy included.

Chalking it up to some sort of confusion somewhere along the line, I offered to write a “retro review” of sorts.

Too Long; Didn’t Read: This isn’t a review of a recent release, but I hope it’s at least entertaining as you spend a few minutes with me.

The A-Team began life as a creation of legendary TV writer/producer Stephen J. Cannell, premiering in January 1983 on NBC as a mid-season replacement. As the opening introduction tells us, the team is “a crack commando unit” sent to a military prison after being convicted for a crime they did not commit while serving in Vietnam during the war. After escaping from their confinement, the team disappeared into Los Angeles where they hide from the U.S. Government while marketing their expertise to whoever can find them and pay for their services.

The series continued for five seasons on NBC before being cancelled in the spring of 1987, after which it found second life in rerun syndication on local TV stations and (later) cable. Today, you can find it on various streaming platforms like Tubi and Roku as well as Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, and others. Unlike many shows of the era, the show never enjoyed any sort of “reunion movie” or other television revival, either with members of the original cast or new characters, and I’m frankly surprised it took so long for the concept to

So that brings us to 2010 and the big-budget reboot of The A-Team.

1980s television series have been fertile ground for reboots and re-imaginings. Miami Vice, Baywatch, The Fall Guy, 21 Jump Street, and The Equalizer are some prominent examples that leap to mind. At some point during conversations about rebooting such properties, someone somewhere decides whether they’re going to attempt to recapture the tone of the original version, embrace the absurdity and lean into whatever comedic aspects are to be
found, or go darker. The A-Team is an interesting experiment in trying to do all three. The film wastes little time introducing us to the core cast, rolling them out as part of a rather complicated, frenetic sequence of events which involves Colonel John “Hannibal” Smith rescuing his comrade, Lieutenant Templeton “Face” Peck from a Mexican drug lord. Along the way, Hannibal enlists the aid of former Army corporal Boscoe “B.A.” Baracus who’s also in Mexico to retrieve his sweet, sweet van from punks who’ve stolen it and brought it across the border. While on the run from the drug cartel, the trio makes their way to a Veterans Administration psychiatric hospital in search of a pilot who can help them steal a nearby medical helicopter. They find their man with Captain H.M. “Howlin’ Mad” Murdock, and the unlikely team makes its escape.

Oh, and this is a comparatively low gear so far as the violence, mayhem, and insanity to come.

It’s the time jump to “eight years later,” with the team serving in Iraq during that period just before the United States’ withdrawal, that we get the movie version of the “crime they did not commit.” A CIA stooge, Lynch, gives Smith a covert mission to recover stolen U.S. Treasury plates along with more than $1 billion in U.S. currency. After a ridiculously complicated chase scene that sees the team accomplish their mission, they return to base in time to see the vehicle driven by their commanding officer, General Morrison, destroyed, and the money and plates are gone. With Morrison dead and no one to vouch for them that the mission was authorized, Smith and his team are court-martialed and sent to separate maximum security prisons.

“Maximum security” is a fluid term in this movie.

What comes after the team’s inevitable escape? A scheme for the team to find out who set them up so they can recover the plates and money and clear their names. Expect the usual assortment of double-crosses, misdirection, and fake-outs that do their best to connect an escalating series of action sequences that torture physics to its limits if they’re even acknowledged at all.

To be fair, this sort of thing was one of the original show’s charms, and the movie understands that the series was never really about plausibility. Hannibal loving it when the plan comes together for him and his team to hatch outlandish schemes and solve impossible problems with ingenuity, explosives, and an alarming disregard for conventional engineering principles, even as they apparently wreak havoc and destruction while never killing a single bad guy was at the core of every episode for five years. Director

Joe Carnahan simply takes this idea and cranks up the Crazy until the knob breaks off in his hand. Forget trying to hope it’ll make sense; just sit back and enjoy the ride, and while the story and whatever passes for its internal logic may be hard to swallow at various points, the film’s true triumph comes from its casting.

After emerging as an action hero with 2008’s Taken, Liam Neeson steps into the late George Peppard’s boots to chomp Hannibal Smith’s ever-present cigar with aplomb, balancing the gravitas of a seasoned yet unconventional military leader with a devious glint of mischief that’s always lurking just beneath the surface.

Bradley Cooper effortlessly channels Dirk Benedict’s suave charm while also bringing a heightened physicality and manic energy as Face masterminds and executes several of the antics the team pulls throughout the film.

Taking Murdock’s unpredictable yet ultra-confident lunacy as perfected by Dwight Schultz, Sharlto Copley feeds it Red Bull and meth to the point you’re absolutely certain he’ll play Chicken with a 747 or the nearest mountain and never flinch.

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson has perhaps the most difficult task, stepping into an iconic pop culture role first inhabited by an equally 1980s luminary. To his credit, Jackson doesn’t try to emulate Mr. T’s singular screen presence but instead embraces B.A.’s quiet menace and even his hidden soft side, but also the character’s hysterical fear of flying.

The end result is a better than average film that doesn’t make any overt attempt to transform a piece of 1980s TV cheese into a darker, grittier, “more serious” version of itself. If this was the plan, then it came together pretty well, all things considered, setting up the team with what essentially is the original show’s central premise: “Still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire…the A-Team.”

Since the film underperformed at the box office and received only mixed-to-average reviews from most critics, plans for a sequel were scrapped. Meanwhile, it found a second life and a more forgiving audience on home video and streaming, and more recent reviews have found it somewhat underrated and more entertaining than people seem to remember.

Which brings us to the Blu-ray!

The original physical media release which followed months after its theatrical run features an “extended cut” of the movie that includes more than fifteen additional minutes of footage. Having watched both versions, I enjoy the longer cut more, as it adds a bit more in the way of moments for the various characters as well as dialogue bits here and there that help explain some of the more hectic plot machinations. As for the Blu-ray, the film is presented in a 1080p MPEG-4 AVC transfer with DTS-HD 5.1 audio, so it’s big, loud, and vibrant if you have the right gear to take advantage of it. People who are better educated on these things seem satisfied with this setup, making it a decent addition to the “Manly Men Action Movie Goodness” shelf of your home video library. Mine sits next to my copy of The Accountant, if anyone’s wondering. As re-interpretations of decades-old TV series go, The A-Team is not at all the worst offender (that would be you, CHiPs, and The Dukes of Hazzard, and especially you, The
Avengers—the one from 1998). If you want a decent double-feature that doesn’t take itself
too seriously for a lazy Sunday afternoon, partner, this with The Losers or the second Expendables movie.

Now that’s a plan coming together, right there.