TV invades the big screen

Film review: The A-Team

MANILA, Philippines - It’s an established Hollywood tradition to take successful, or iconic, TV series from yesteryear, and give them the full-blown big screen treatment. Mission Impossible, Miami Vice, Starsky & Hutch, Bewitched, Wild, Wild West, the list goes on and on, and it’s been hits and misses along the way. One of the early 2010 Summer releases is 20th Century Fox’s The A-Team, so we know what to expect — adventure/action with a healthy dose of humor and irreverence. After all, we’re talking about a rogue team of ex-Special Forces soldiers making the world a safer place for democracy, dry humor and Mr. T’s mohawk haircuts! Directed by Joe Carnahan, a blood and guts type of director, the obvious idea was to up the stakes of the TV show in terms of action sequences, gross-out jokes and sight gags. And yes, they manage to do this to the point that Mr. T, after the Hollywood premiere, thought they had taken it too far with the obscenities and gore, straying too far from the implied “wink and grin” that lay beneath the TV series.

Somewhere enmeshed in all the action, wise-guy remarks, mayhem, and spilled blood, there’s a threadbare plot about plates for minting dollar bills that were stolen by Saddam and are “rescued” by the A-Team, but then stolen again with the A-Team set up as the criminals, and a double-crossing frenzy of a plot. The CIA, the Special Ops teams-for hire (the A-Team isn’t the only one), the real US Army, the local police and Arab financiers — they’re all “osterized” in the fluid plot that delivers twists and turns as an excuse for more secret missions and revelations. The impossible, defying all logic action-scenarios are really what drive the film, and keep it on overdrive. It’s the school of “Make enough loud noise, keep the body count rising and make enough jokes in the process” and the audience will come and leave convinced. And it works if you’re looking for escapist fare. I know my middle boy, Matteo, thought the film was “coolest,” like a video game.

Comedian Bradley Cooper as the filp, ever with the sarcastic remark Faceman Peck, Quinton Jackson as Baracus, the tough guy who’s afraid of heights and flying, Sharlto Copley taking the role of the certifiably insane pilot Capt. Murdoch, and with Jessica Biel as Sosa, an Army Captain — they all give energy to their roles. What struck me as really odd was finding an actor like Liam Neeson playing the role of gruff, head honcho, Col. Hannibal Smith. I know the days of Michael Collins and Les Miserables are long gone, but I did love him in Taken last year, so what compelled him to take this role? Well, he’s here, trying to give gravitas to the role of the cigar-chomping Hannibal. And then I remembered, Liam did the title role of Darkman, so I guess he also likes doing these cartoon-type characters, as Hannibal is like a grown-up GI Joe.

It’s summer, it’s fast-paced, and it’s mindless fun — it’s the A-Team back in the saddle!