The A Team Review

Out of the many constants in this world, nostalgia is one of the most predictable ones out there. As sure as night follows day, people will look back on things that occurred number of years ago with fondness. The current wave of nostalgic effort is directed at the eighties.          

Never ones to leave a trend unexploited, has mined the company archives to bring back franchises that had their heyday during that era (or maybe they just bought the DVDs). To date we have had the Transformers making a comeback along with GI Joe and this even unsuccessful stuff like Tron is getting a new coat of paint. The latest effort off this production line is a reboot of the popular television series, The A Team. A show which was so eighties in style and execution that watching it now is embarrassing, kinda like watching your parents dance at a wedding. (It also, if Wikipedia is to be believed the show also came with some eighties style sexism).

The A Team was so popular that just about everyone who has ever watched television is aware of the basic premise and this new version doesn’t change any of that. They are still on the run for a crime they didn’t commit although this time around they actually try to clear their names which is something the guys in the TV show never going round to doing. The setting has been updated which is a good thing as it allows the team to use the latest in technological gadgets which allows for some excellent set pieces.

There is nothing new here unless you have not seen the TV show before so instead the real question becomes how well the “new” guys slip into the parts. On the whole they pull it off well and the guys play the roles with gusto. The cast so effortlessly play their roles that it becomes hard to imagine the established cast members doing a better job. It is true that Quinton 'Rampage' does not have the same presence as BA did but to the film’s credit they don’t simply have him play a carbon copy. He has new motivations and some interesting dilemmas making him a far more believable character than BA was, who lets face it was a walking slogan machine at times (I pity the fool).

This is one area where the remake is a vast improvement. The original was a manly show, it didn’t have time for things like feelings or problems that could not be dealt without a machine gun. This film manages to portray the fact that although the A Team are complexly bad asses, there are human and have to go through emotional stress just like everyone else. This leads to some great acting as the leads try to grapple with some heavy dialogue in between action sequences.

As the film is a high budget remake of a low budget television series it would be silly to compare the two. The thing is that the yardstick this film will judged on will be if this film matches up to the ideal and the fond memories people have of watching the show way back when as opposed to the actually quality of the series (which was patchy to say the least). In my view it does recapture that feeling. There is a sense of fun and adventure and most of the movie does not take itself seriously. Yes there is an Indiana Jones “fridge” moment but it is played for laughs and it is done in such a way that you don’t stop to think the absurdness of it.  

This feels like this is the film that would have been made if the original producers got given a bunch of money to make a movie with the original cast back when the series was popular. This is how it should be.