Review for The A-Team: Extended Explosive Edition

Introduction

If the definition of a guilty pleasure is the appreciation of something that the majority dislike, then the A-Team movie from 2010 is my guilty pleasure. Initially I was excited by the idea of a remake; of all the 1980s television shows to provide inspiration, it most belongs on the big screen, certainly more so than any of the ‘one man and his talking vehicle’ shows that populated schedules back then. The trailers did nothing to dissuade my enthusiasm, but when it came to the audience response to the actual film, my ardour faded. The critics certainly didn’t love it, but it was the fans that really drove the stake in, comparing it unfavourably to the original series. When you consider that the original series really consisted of just variations of one story, told again and again, week in, week out, with the odd budget saving flashback episode when one of the A-Team would get shot for variety, then to not improve on it would be a failure indeed. The A-Team movie slipped from my mind, until I eventually saw it on a TV broadcast. Anyway, I got this combo release on sale, with the movie on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Copy, although by now, probably only the single disc Blu-ray release will be available.


Is it a chance encounter, or destiny? When undertaking a mission against a self-styled warlord in Mexico, and on the verge of it going wrong, Colonel John ‘Hannibal’ Smith encounters a former Ranger named Bosco “B.A.” Baracus while on his way to rescue his partner Templeton “Face” Peck. The resulting escape leads to certifiably insane pilot “Howling Mad” Murdock, and a team is born. 8 years and 80 successful missions later, they’re about to be pulled out of Iraq along with the rest of the US forces, but a final mission from the CIA to recover printing plates from the Shah of Iran’s personal mint, tempts them with the ‘jazz’ once more. Only this mission is a set-up. Their general is murdered, the private security group Black Forest escapes with the plates, and Smith’s team is left bearing the blame. Falsely imprisoned for a crime they didn’t commit, their only option is to escape and prove their innocence.

You get both the theatrical version 118:45 and the Explosive Extended Edition 133:33 on the Blu-ray.

Picture

The image comes across in a 2.35:1 widescreen 1080p transfer, which as you would expect from a recent film on Blu-ray, is fantastic. The image is clear and sharp throughout, colours are consistent, detail levels are high, shadow and dark detail is good, and I didn’t see any signs of compression or artefacting. The film itself is another matter. You have to live with the orange and teal colour grading which is apparently applied to any movie in the action genre these days, and there are plenty of shaky cam action sequences to obscure what’s actually happening on screen, and some of the CGI gets ridiculous. It’s a normal summer blockbuster movie.

The images in this review are captured from the DVD in the combo set, and aren’t representative of the Blu-ray disc.

Sound

Choices, choices... DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround English will no doubt be the one that you’ll go for, but there’s a DD 2.0 English Audio Descriptive track, DTS 5.1 Surround Spanish, Czech, Hungarian and Turkish, with subtitles in these languages too. For the non-English dialogue in the film, the disc uses player generated subtitles at those points. The surround certainly kicks posterior when it comes to the action sequences, robust, emphatic and explosive when needs be, while the music drives the action well. The classic A-Team theme is reserved for the end credits (and one certain point in the film) which is a small shame, but the bigger shame is that like most summer blockbuster movies, the dialogue tends to get buried by the action, and I’ll most likely watch the film with subtitles next time.

Extras

This triple play release comes on three discs packaged in a Blu-ray Amaray, two discs on a central hinged panel, the whole thing held in an o-card that repeats the artwork and blurb. Remember when digital copies of movies were actually on physical discs? The film is available on a disc to transfer to a device of your choice, which saves on bandwidth, but given that it’s still subject to an expiry date, is at this point little more than a coaster. The DVD version of the film certainly isn’t subject to any expiry date, and will work in any Region 2 DVD player, or if you’re perverse, Blu-ray player as well.


Insert the Blu-ray and the disc autoplays with trailers for Knight and Day, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, and Unstoppable. You’re then offered a choice of Theatrical or Extended Version before the disc loads up the animated menu. The Blu-ray is one of those that hold its position in the player memory.

You also have the option of Live Extras, provided you have the Internet Connection and storage space in your Blu-ray player, and provided that Fox haven’t switched off the servers by now.


For on disc extras, with the Theatrical Version of the film, you get The Devil’s in the Details: Inside the Action with Joe Carnahan feature. After an introduction from the director, the film starts playing with commentary, but more than that, it also offers on screen graphics with pop-up trivia about the military hardware on show, breaking down the various plans in the story, and also popping out of the film to show short behind the scenes featurettes. It’s a nice extra, and thankfully not one of those that requires faffing around with a player’s secondary audio settings. Subtitles are available if you need them.


There are 6 deleted scenes on the disc, presented in HD and running to 9:05.

The Gag Reel, for once one of the funny ones, lasts 7:19 HD.

The A-Team Mash-up Montage finally allows that original theme tune to get a work out, putting scenes from the film to the music for 1:36.

Plan of Attack lasts 28:39 and is the behind the scenes featurette for the film, with clips, and interviews with the cast and crew. The A-Team creator, Stephen J. Cannell also has a word.


Character Chronicles takes a lighter look at the four main cast members, as well as the supporting cast, in a series of featurettes which when play all-ed last 23:11.

There’s a Visual Effects Before and After With Commentary By Visual Effects Supervisor James E. Price featurette, which lasts 6:11 and points out loads of CGI.

Finally there is the Theatrical Trailer.

Conclusion

I loved the original A-Team series because it was so much fun. And I love the movie for the same reason. It is just so much fun. The over the top action is relentless, with some fantastic stunts and set pieces, although probably overcooked with CGI. But they do remember that in this universe, you can trip a car over with a bullet, although the patented sideways A-Team flip has been replaced by a head over heels full body vehicular somersault. The characters are fun, and most importantly they look like they relish the mayhem they find themselves in and cause. It feels to me like the A-Team, if not exactly like the A-Team that I remember. Murdock’s madness is a little understated, Face lacks the suave smoothness of the original, B.A.’s bad attitude isn’t as in your face as Mr T’s and Hannibal doesn’t have the same joie de vivre. But they are in the right ballpark with the characters, and the film certainly has the room for character development that the television show never had.


Not a lot of people agreed with those sentiments however. They said it was too violent, too dark, the characters were too different, that they were too accurate with their weapons... The thing is, this A-Team was an origin story, putting the characters in the original military setting that gave them their experience and training before they went on the run. Can you imagine the original A-Team at war in Vietnam, fighting the Commies, yet unable to hit a target no matter how many thousands of rounds of ammunition they discharged? They wouldn’t exactly be an A-Team.


So it makes sense that when we meet this A-Team, during their military service, they’re efficient, capable soldiers, as well as thrill seekers. It’s in the course of the story that we see them develop into the characters that we know that they will be. There really are two main character arcs in the film, Hannibal’s mentoring of Face, developing the leadership and planning talents within him, and B.A.’s journey to pacifism, and the struggle he has reconciling that with the necessity of fighting. It’s this direction that would no doubt develop the A-Team into who they’d become as opposed to who they are in the film. You could see them choosing to aim for the broadside of a barn instead of the villain, to intimidate rather than to kill, for the sake of B.A.’s pacifist sensibilities. But the seeds of that are only sown in this film, as the stakes they are fighting for are much higher, the foes they are facing deadlier, which requires a similar response.


The Extended Version is the way to go here, although it’s falsely labelled as Explosive. There aren’t more explosions, but there are more character beats, thankfully quiet and discernible dialogue moments that develop the characters a little more (and restore the Dwight Schultz and Dirk Benedict cameos to the film from the post-credits). It helps flesh out the characters more, and it also adds more of the original series flavour to the film; you get more of the improvisational bodge it together sense of Hannibal’s plans coming together, which I never felt in the theatrical cut.


Apparently the box office of this film precluded the potential sequel from being made, which is a shame. The end of this film essentially saw these characters at the same place as the series, fugitives, hiding out in L.A., putting their services for hire, and with B.A.’s pacifism informing how they deal with villains in the future. The next A-Team movie could have been more like the TV series in the way that fans really wanted. But I still get enough of that daft cartoon feel from this movie that I used to get from the TV series; they fly a tank for pity’s sake. You can’t call that dark!