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I haven't checked my mail in 2 years:
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The A-team
Here they are. The new A team. This was one of those movies that simply couldn't disappoint. So many sanities depended on it. So many old fans needed to be calmed down and assured that their old heroes wouldn't be turned into a shitty movie directed by someone evil like Michael Bay. The A team wasn't just an old show, it was a phenomenon. Its still being aired around the world, and has been for the past twenty years. It is a legend, as are the people who up the old A team. It was an arduous process to find the people who could ever replace them. But find them they did. Liam 'Schindler' Neeson is Hannibal. Bradley 'Hangover' Cooper is Face. Sharlto 'District 9' Copley is Murdock and BA Baracus is played by someone called 'Rampage' in the WNF and I don't know him at all. A tough process with the eyes of millions of fans on it. Did they pull it off?
Spoiler: this movie has smoking in it. I think they did. For a very short period of time I was worried but almost immediately after Hannibal is introduced all my worries evaporated. This movie is gonna be fun. It knows its a movie and therefore not bound to the laws of physics, reason and accountability and holy crap, does it ever go wild with this knowledge. I think the scene with the tank is the highlight of movie making in these past years as it demonstrates perfectly what a good action movie should show, stuff that is just downright impossible but horrendously awesome to watch. Flying a tank? Give these people an Oscar, right now. I'll wait. The characters are equally larger then life and all the better for it. Hannibal is the man with the plan who seems to know everything. I like it when a movie character seems to know everything and always has a plan and so it was doubly upsetting when at one point he admitted he was out of ideas. Face on the other hand is the perfect off set to Hannibal. Reckless and prone to bad decisions when he sees a woman yet fiercely loyal. The team is completed by the hardcore BA Baracus who is even tougher here then he was in the series and the batshit insane Murdock who hits the exact right tone of insanity for this movie. These four might be the best group of movie characters I've ever seen. The addition of Jessica Biel as the officer who hunts them only adds to the fun.
Also, Jessica Biel is hot. The story is also more interesting then I anticipated. It not only tells the story of how the four A team members met but also how BA gets his flying phobia, their crime they didn't commit and a whole lot after that. I felt this gave a far more complete story then the TV show ever did. From BA's religious issues to Hannibal's doubts halfway and to Face's talent for conning people and from Murdock's insanity to dirty politics in the CIA and then from Face and his old love affair with Jessica Biel to topical commentary of using mercenary forces in Iraq and then finally to a massive game of 'find the ball' using freight containers. This movie has it all. It is the most fun filled action packed movie I've seen in a long time and it made me smile broadly for almost its entire length.
The tank scene alone was mind numbingly, pants droppingly terrific. This is why movies should be made. This is why Hollywood spends millions of dollars and sends a crew all around the world to film a bunch of people, to make this kind of spectacular, silly and top notch entertainment. When is this coming out on DVD? I gotta find my replay button before that time... Technically a 3 MI review but special circumstances make me shout 4:
-Flying a tank. That's all really. Not enough for you?
Back to the world of sucks and rules
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