The A-Team (2010)
Directed by Joe Carnahan
A man who loves when a plan comes together, Col. Hannibal Smith leads a close-knit team of elite operatives and Iraq War veterans. Framed for a crime they didn't commit, Smith and his men, Capt. H.M. ‘Howling Mad’ Murdock , Sgt. Bosco ‘B.A.’ Baracus, and Lt. Templeton ‘Faceman’ Peck, break out and go rogue, using their special talents to clear their names and find the perpetrator. Hot on their trail is Capt. Charissa Sosa, who was once involved with a member of Smith's team and has sworn to capture them, no matter what it takes.
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What critics compared The A-Team to
And that's because each week the show -- that debuted on NBC back in 1983 following the success of the somewhat similarly themed first Rambo movie, "First Blood," and ran for 5 seasons -- featured its unorthodox but highly proficient quartet of special forces ops doing their thing in defeating one bad guy or another while perpetually trying to clear their names.
In many ways Cline’s text is one that is perfectly suited to cinema and while the plot dizzyingly assaults the senses at times, it is hard to resist a film featuring – among other things - mountain climbing with Batman, The A-Team ’s GMC Vandura racing alongside a DeLorean and Christine ’s 1958 Plymouth Fury while avoiding a King Kong attack and (in a goosebumpy final fight reveal) a joyous remix of Akira Ifukube’s Godzilla theme.
6 Underground is a whirlwind collision of the Ocean’s heist films, the Fast & Furious franchise, the Mission: Impossible series, Vin Diesel’s XXX saga, and The A-Team.
All the Bay-hem trademarks are on full display in this testament to uninhibited excess, indebted equally to The A-Team , Mission: Impossible , James Bond, superhero tentpoles and numerous Bay predecessors.
“6 Underground” is a modern blend of “The A-Team” or the latter seasons of British TV’s “Spooks” minus the politics – and follows freelance misfits that fake their deaths in order to do some disruptive black ops anonymously and without oversight.
All the time they are being pursued by a military police officer (Jessica Biel) who is Face's former lover; a CIA operative (Patrick Wilson) who may have framed them; and a creepy private military contractor played by Brian Bloom, also credited with the minimalist screenplay (which practically borders on the avant-garde), along with Skip Woods ("Swordfish") and director Carnahan ("Smokin' Aces").
Director Joe Carnahan ("Narc," "Smokin' Aces") provides just the right mix of bravado, swagger, absurd fights, gadgets, and a sense of humor.
Cowriter (with Brian Bloom and Skip Woods)/director Joe Carnahan knows how to develop characters and situations with humor, but with "The A-Team" he makes the same misjudgments that made his last film, 2006's "Smokin' Aces," ultimately fail.
Carnahan, obviously, was not hired for this project because of a facility for psychological nuance but because, after adrenalized films like "Smokin' Aces" and "Narc," he is one of Hollywood's go-to guys for brisk, peppy action, and he delivers.
There was no nostalgia factor for me, then, as I watched the big-screen version of "The A-Team" directed by Joe Carnahan ("Narc," "Smokin' Aces").
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Which is probably the right way to do it, since what you’re really waiting for is Reynolds and the Rock as the modern Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck in a selection of cartoonish sequences with a lot of added gunfire (all The A-Team-level of nonlethal).
The fact that the finale is set in Samoa cannot disguise the fact that it’s basically a crazy-plan-but-it-just-might-work scenario right outta The A-Team.
The scheme, naturally, proves wildly elaborate, including -- in a flourish that brings "The A-Team" to mind -- breaking a safecracker (Daniel Craig) out of the local prison just long enough to get the job done without anyone noticing.
After all, similar attempts with The A-Team and Dukes of Hazard had failed spectacularly.
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There is a lot of promise in the idea of miscreants’ joining together in a good cause — I’m old enough to remember the original “A Team,” which was awesome — and inherent drama in the prospect of prickly individualists’ uniting.