The A-Team

The A-Team (2010)

Pictured: The coolest toy ever.

I'll tell you something interesting about "The A-Team" (movie): it isn't terrible.

Going into it, I had heard nothing but bad things about how bad it is at badness. This, combined with the fact that I despise the current trend of making horrible remakes of things I like (see "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "Transformers", "Transformers 2", "G.I. Joe" and so forth), meant that I had no hope for this remake of "The A-Team" TV series from the '80s. Still, my love for that series made me curious about the movie and kept me curious until I felt I should at least see it once.

The main criticism I heard was that it was ridiculous, mindless action that was both ridiculous and mindless. And there's no doubt that was right. I won't get into spoilers of specific actions/scenes/scenarios but I will say that calling it "unrealistic" is an insult to unrealism. If you think about the physics or logistics of this movie - or simply try to place the events somewhere within the space-time continuum in which the rest of us live - for any more than a few seconds, you WILL suffer an aneurysm and probably suffer brainexplosia. This movie takes believability and melts it with underwater fireworks and chocolate sauce.

However (and this is a hard "however" to face), it is most enjoyable. I never go for mindless action and I usually hate when other do, but in this case I do have to say that for me, believability and enjoyment were not on a line extending in opposite directions, but were rather on a circle continuum. In one direction, a movie gets more and more unreal and less enjoyable but then there comes a point where the movie gets SO unreal that it's laughable and fun. This movie is that event. The situations are SO ridiculous and SO over the top that I just chuckled and enjoyed the ride - I think you have to. And - let's be fair - we can't argue that the original A-Team didn't require a certain well-proportioned level of disbelief suspension.

It might be said that my opinion is skewed because I'm probably a pushover for all things A-Team... well, I guess that's a crime I DID commit. But how can you not be? If you got the A-Team theme blasting as the A-Team characters fire guns from a helicopter while being chased by the bad guys and BA is yelling at Murdock and it's all displayed on the big screen, what's not to like?!

And I know there's only one real BA and only one real Face, etc. and it is true... But the actors are good in this "re-imagining". The closest parallel is the new "Star Trek" movie. There are new actors playing iconic roles that are defined by the original actors but somehow it's not offensive, and actually is kinda fun.

In the end, is it Shakespeare? No. Is it smart? Not really. But it IS fun and if you're looking for some escapist entertainment for an hour, it's perfect. And it's The A-Team.

Trivia: Watch for two Phillies shirts worn by Face in the movie. Actor Bradley Cooper is a Philadelphia native. Be sure also to keep watching until after the credits are over.

Trivia Continued: Within the "A-Team" movie, there is an "A-Team" movie... (yeah). The first listed credit of this movie is Reginald Barclay. Reginald Barclay is Dwight Schultz (the original Murdock)'s character's name in "Star Trek: The Next Generation".

Personal Addendum: This may be the first time I've encountered a brainless action flick and gone along with the "turn off your thinker" mentality to laugh at the crazy explosions. So far I'm taking it in stride but it is slightly worrying that I may be getting stupider.