The Absurdity Was Always Part of It

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MOVIE REVIEWS
The A-Team – Blu-ray
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Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Thriller
Year Released: 2010, 2026 Blu-ray
Runtime: 1h 58m theatrical, 2h 13m extended
Director(s): Joe Carnahan
Writer(s): Joe Carnahan, Brian Bloom, Skip Woods
Cast: Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Jessica Biel, Patrick Wilson, Gerald McRaney, Brian Bloom
Where to Watch: available now, order your copy here: www.moviezyng.com or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: Rewatching THE A-TEAM now, the cast is easily the reason the movie still works. Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley, and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson all become their roles quickly enough that the friendship between Hannibal, Face, Murdock, and B.A. feels established long before the story finishes explaining how they became a team. Director/co-writer Joe Carnahan knew he was making something ridiculous; at the same time, he also understood that two hours of ridiculousness needed people you actually wanted to spend those two hours with.

Hannibal is already several moves ahead of everyone else, Face is charming his way through a situation that should probably get him killed, B.A. would prefer to solve problems with considerably less chit chat, and Murdock lives his life according to his own set of rules. The opening scenes introduce this group of reg tag rebels through a giant action sequence rather than four separate origin stories, and they establish the cadence Carnahan maintains through most of the movie. Plans are explained, trouble appears, somebody improvises, and common sense is usually abandoned somewhere along the way.

Neeson was already firmly established as an action star after TAKEN, but Hannibal gives him a different type of character to play. He isn’t driven primarily by anger or revenge. He likes solving the impossible problems and seems happiest when every piece lands exactly where he predicted. Neeson gives him the authority needed to make the team believable as a military unit while allowing enough amusement into the performance to acknowledge how absurd Hannibal’s plans can become.

Cooper’s portal as Face has a different level of confidence altogether. The movie gives him plenty of the expected swagger, but Cooper keeps the character from becoming exhausting by making the arrogance playful rather than mean. Face can talk himself into or out of almost anything, and his relationship with Hannibal shows someone who enjoys participating in these elaborate schemes even while questioning how unreasonable they’ve really are.

Copley walks away with many of the funniest moments. Coming only a year after DISTRICT 9, his Murdock showed a completely different side of him as an actor. There’s no attempt to make the character remotely realistic, which fits a movie in which a tank can fall through the sky while its occupants try to steer it by firing its cannon (because, why not). Copley commits to every expression, bad idea, and bizarre behavior without making Murdock feel disconnected from the other three. He’s the wildcard, but he still belongs with them.

Jackson has the most difficult comparison to escape because Mr. T made B.A. Baracus such an identifiable piece of the original television series. Rather than trying to reproduce that performance, Jackson plays him with considerably less theatricality. His acting is occasionally the least natural of the four, particularly when the script asks B.A. to carry more emotional material. His physical presence fits the group, and his irritation with Murdock remains an easy way to get more comedy out of those moments. Carnahan also gives B.A.’s fear of flying an origin instead of simply being the trait because audiences expect it.

THE A-TEAM is at its best when those four personalities are bouncing off one another. The actual conspiracy surrounding stolen printing plates, military corruption, CIA interference, and the team being framed for a mission gone wrong becomes more complicated than it needs to be. Brian Bloom, who co-wrote the screenplay, also plays Pike with enough smugness to give the team a welcome adversary. Patrick Wilson has even more fun as Lynch, approaching government intelligence work with a casual attitude that makes him entertaining even when the plot around him becomes needlessly tangled.

Jessica Biel gets the less rewarding assignment as Charissa Sosa, Face’s former girlfriend and the military officer trying to capture the team. Biel handles the action and verbal sparring with enough attitude to seem legit, but Sosa is too often attached to Face rather than allowed to develop independently. Their romantic history supplies some friction, although the movie doesn’t need it nearly as much as the screenplay seems to think it does. The four-person dynamic already provides more than enough personality.

The extended version included on Blu-ray, at roughly fifteen minutes longer than the theatrical cut, restores character and story rather than simply adding another explosion every few minutes. The difference doesn’t transform THE A-TEAM to the greatest action movie ever made, although a movie this dependent on personalities benefits from having a little more room for them. Dirk Benedict and Dwight Schultz, the original Face and Murdock, also have their appearances placed within the film rather than appearing as isolated post-credits cameos.

The Blu-ray carries both versions along with a healthy selection of extras from the earlier home release. “The Devil’s in the Details” provides Carnahan’s perspective on the action, while Character Chronicles, Plan of Attack, deleted scenes, a gag reel, and the A-Team Theme Mash-Up fill out the package. Having both cuts available is the most important inclusion because it gives viewers the choice between the theatrical version and a longer edition that spends a little more time with the characters.

There’s something almost refreshing about THE A-TEAM fifteen years later. It comes from a period when studios were aggressively turning those old-school television properties into theatrical franchises, and there’s no question that this was designed with sequels in mind. That sequel never happened. The movie earned far less enthusiasm in theaters than its ending suggested, leaving Carnahan’s version a one-and-done attempt to launch a series.

That’s a shame, mostly because the casting had already solved the hardest problem. Neeson, Cooper, Copley, and Jackson feel like a team. Another movie could have simplified the plotting, eased off some of the frantic editing, and found better ways to use that chemistry. Instead, we’re left with a single oversized adventure that throws nearly every idea it has onto the screen.

Some of those ideas have aged better than others. The effects can be rough in spots, the story becomes unnecessarily busy, and subtlety clearly wasn’t on the production checklist. None of that changes how entertaining these four are together. THE A-TEAM understands that the plan can be completely unreasonable as long as watching these guys attempt it remains fun. Fifteen years later, I’m still disappointed they never got another chance!

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