I love it when a plan comes together

Last weekend I had some friends over for dinner. It was the usual evening of enjoying good company with nice food and good wine. During the after dinner (and after wine) conversation my friend and I realized that our usual post dinner topic could no longer be the long drawn out discussion that usually ends with the girls fast asleep on the sofa. You see for the last 10 years the hot post dinner topic has been to discuss which actors would play the A-Team if they ever made a movie. Hours of discussion, lots of internet searching on a number of heated debates have passed over the years to try to reach a conclusive agreement between all parties as to who would make up the ultimate crack command unit. Now of course the question has been answered for us with this months release of The A-Team movie. With our dinner party topic in mind my friend and I quickly agreed we should plan a trip with a bunch of friends (the dinner party 8 (minus the girls) to determine if the movie makers had done a good job of the casting.

The thing about the original A-Team was it was a far fetched, cheesy mixture of explosions, crack pot plans, in which not even the bad guys ever got shot. I was pretty certain that some of this was going to have to change to make a movie that would appeal to the current crop of cinema go’ers, but was hopeful that at least some of the cheesy lines that made the original TV show so good could be preserved.

The plot in the movie actually starts before the plot of the A-Team series. The movie begins with Hannibal and Face doing some sort of job in Mexico, having never met the rest of the A-Team. The plan goes a little wrong. Hannibal quickly finds ‘a plan’ to escape capture, as ever ending with him lighting up a cigar. Face it would seem got distracted on his plan to rescue an attractive lady by getting caught in bed with her by the drug baron they should have been running from, and subsequently got captured. By co-incidence BA happened to also be in Mexico was car jacked by Hannibal, and on discovering they were both Rangers decided to hatch a plan to free Face. Now with 3 of the team running from bent Mexican police and drug barrons they need to find a way out of Mexico and quickly. By co-incidence they find themselves in a hospital for mentally ill soldiers and bump into Murdoch who is a pilot and can fly!. They jump on the hospital helicopter, get chased over the border and after some crazy and quite frankly impossible manoeuvres in the chopper manage to escape. During the helicopter flight BA almost falls out of the plan because of “The Crazy Fool’s” flying which results in a “I ain’t gettin’ on no plane fool” out of BA, and there we were with the previous unexplained fear of flying from BA, which was prevalent throughout the 80′s TV series. First mission complete and the A-Team are born.

We then jump forward 7 yeas to Iraq, where the A-Team are assisting with security ahead of the US withdrawal. Word comes in that the Iraqis still have a printing press and plates for producing $100 bills. The US want it back and therefore a covert op is required to go in and get the plates. I won’t spoil the plot too much, but a far reached plan involving lost of explosions and finally ending up with a shipping container floating in the sea using only inflated car air bags to keep it afloat, along with the obligatory trick to get BA in an aeroplane, and the team successfully retrieve the plates. On return to base it turns out they have been double crossed by a private security firm, the only man that could vouch for the A-team during this secret op had been killed and the A-Team had become fugitives.

The A-team go to prison and Hannibal launches a plan to allow them to escape. “Give him an hour and he’s good, Give him a week and he’s great, Give him 6 months and he’s unstoppable.” There’s a funny scene of Face in prison where he has used his charm to basically turn his stay in prison into one similar of six months in a health spa. The rest of the movie is dedicated to the team clearing their name, again I won’t spoil the plot,, but needless to say it involves lots of the following.

• Hannibal talking about having a plan and smoking a cigar.
• BA running around shouting “I ain’t getting on no plane fool”
• Lots of explosions, guns and cars jumping in the air for no reason.
• A plethora of classic cheeseball lines taken directly from the orginal series.

So that leaves to big questions.

Did the directors get the casting correct?

Over the years my preferred A-Team line up has changed a lot. Not one of the actors in the movie have ever been on my radar during the discussions, however they have in general done a great job.

Face is played by Bradley Cooper, who I first saw in ‘The Hangover’. For me this is the best cast character, he does an excellent job and portraits face as a charming, clever womanizer who always has a witty line. Definately an excellent modern take on the TV series version of Face.

BA is played by Rampage Jackson, who I believe (and I haven’t checked this) used to be some sort of fighter before he was an actor. He did a good job to be fair, for me though his character was ruined when after his stint in prison he decided he couldn’t kill anyone again, and would not have a moheican again as a result. That would never happen to the real BA. It also irritated me that throughout the movie people kept calling him Bosco. I don’t ever remember BA being called that in the original. BA stood for Bad Attitude and he was a Bad Ass. Why making him into a whingy little school girl that all of a sudden had some sort of concisense? And I didn’t once see him drinking any milk, in summary though more of a problem with the script then Rampage’s acting.

Murdoch, played by Sharlto Copley, who I have never heard of before, played the role excellently. Murdoch I imagine would be a difficult character to play, no one really knew if Murdoch was insane or not, but Sharlto Copley played this role in the same vain as Dwight Schultz did in the 80′s showing flashes of brilliance always boarding on the edge of insanity. The love-hate relationship with BA ran through the film, with Murdoch always being the one to calm BA down after a trip on a plane (as a result of knocking the big guy out with an injection).

Hannibal was played by Liam Neeson, clearly the biggest star on the cast list. For me it was this casting that was the worst. Don’t get me wrong I think Nesson did a reasonable job, but fundamentally he was the wrong person to play that role. Hannibal was a complex character (much like George Peppard who played Hannibal in the original). For me Hannibal was too straight with the only slight sense of cheese coming in when he smoked a cigar, and Neeson seemed to rely on those scenes to soften his character playing the rest of the scenes as if he was John McClane in Die Hard. Where was the comedy disguises that the original Hannibal used to don as part of the plan, where where the cheesy lines. (Anyone one remember the lizard disguise?) In the movie Hannibal was too straight and involved too much in the action, Neeson to me seems to be quite a straight actor too, so having a straight actor portraying a straightened version of a character who should have been far more relaxed didn’t work for me.

Would I recommend it?

Overlooking the fact that the final line of the movie is the obvious “I love it when a plan comes together” said by FACE! of all people (had it been Hannibal that would have been fine). Then if you want mindless explosions, an action packed plot, lots of cheesy lines and want to relive some of the excitement you used to feel on a Saturday night when the TV show came on then most definitely go and see it. I’m pleased I saw it and am eagerly anticipating The A-Team 2. If you go there wanting a series realistic action move, don’t bother you will be dissapointed, but then if you were a fan of the original A-Team realism isn’t something you look for in a movie anyway!

So that is my review of the A-team, before I go let me tell you who my ultimate A-team line up would be.

Hannibal – Richard Dreyfuss (Stakeout)

BA – Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction, Mission Impossible)

Face – Charlie Sheen (Hot Shots, Being John Malkovich)

Murdoch – Owen Wilson (Meet the Parents, Wedding Crashers)

I would now replace Face and put in Bradley Cooper instead. So for me the casters got 1/4.

If you have an ultimate A-team line up post it as a comment, I’d like to ensure that over the past 10 years of discussion I haven’t overlooked anyone.