The A-Team - There is no plan B

Daah dah daaah, dah daah daah, daah da-dah daaah, daah da-dadah daah

The A-Team! Every child of the 80s idea of awesome. Everyone wanted to be a clever as Hannibal, as tough as BA, as smooth as Face and as wacky as Murdoch. Everyone wanted to build a rocket powered go-kart with machine guns in the shed using nothing but two bits of wood and a tin of paint. And now, those children are all grown up and making movies.

The A-Team movie is finally here. After really no wait at all, because nobody actually expected one to be made, it explodes onto our screens with wisecracks, machismo and really, really big explosions. How could it fail?

Well, I'll be honest, I'm not going to say that the film is perfect. Far from it, it's clunky and hard to follow, and the final sequences will bend your eyeballs back into your head just trying to keep up with the Michael Bay style all-over-the-place camera angles. But does it really matter?

Liam Neeson pulled off a great Hannibal. His mannerisms were just right, and that trademark glint in his eye as he lit his cuban and grinned at the camera made the 7 year old boy inside me metaphorically jump out of his seat and shout "YAY!" Bradley Cooper as the Faceman was, also, spot on. The right mix of suave lady's man and action hero.

Murdoch was an interesting one. I don't think anyone could pull off Dwight Schultz' version of the character, but Sharlto Copley does a damn fine job at it. Maybe not as completely madcap as Schultz' Murdoch, but exactly the right level of insane to keep everything going without being over the top. I felt the whole way through that the insanity was largely put on to disguise a more cunning plan developing underneath.

Perhaps the weakest character was BA. This is entirely due, I think, to the inability of anyone but Mr T to be BA Barracus. So instead of an unexploded bomb disguised as a one man catchphrase machine, we got a pretty generic tough guy with some odd behaviour. Like being afraid of flying, and instantly calmed by curry. All that being said, though, and given the other changes to the back story, Quinton Jackson did a fine job at it.

What's that though? Changes to the back story? Well, yes. This film is more an origin story than a stand-alone A-Team adventure. It starts with the team initially meeting up at the end of the Iraq war. Hijinks obviously ensue, and the team and formed. Flash forward 80 successful missions later, and they are sent on a highly suspect mission that sees them carted off and dishonourably discharged. This presents the ideal opportunity to find out all about escape from high security prison so often mentioned in the opening credits, but so far never seen. It's hilarious, action packed and completely off the wall. If you like your films realistic (I'm talking to the people who complained that Avatar wasn't realistic enough here) then you're unlikely to enjoy a single second of this film.

In some respects, parts of the film jar a little. It's like the film makers didn't really know if the target audience really knew enough about the A-Team to be able to recognise why things happened the way they did. Little verbal exposés to let people know things that should have been implicit. We don't need a character telling another that the A-Teams plans are crazy. We don't need them telling each other that they are the best at what they do. We don't need them telling each other that they are trying to fly a tank.

Yes, you read that last bit right. Enough of that though. Go see it.

Anyway, changes. One major change is that the team are fighting to clear their names. They are not, yet, soldiers of fortune. They are not championing anyone's cause but their own. That will change in sequels, though. The trademark "nobody ever gets killed" seemed to largely be intact, although there were a few fatalities throughout the film. Including one notable one by a member of the A-Team. Tut tut, film makers. Tut tut indeed.

Oh, and BA stands for Bad Attitude. Everyone knows that. It does not, and never will, stand for Bad Ass. That is final.

There are changes aplenty throughout the film, but one thing I've realised is that many of them I didn't even notice. For instance, the classic A-Team van puts in an appearance, but not for long. At first I was disappointed, but then didn't actually notice it missing until the end of the film. The action cracks on at a good pace, and the between action banter is amusing and to the point. Even the bits that seem out of place soon turn out to be part of the plan.

From the set pieces to the jokes (both in jokes and slapstick), the film is great for fans of the series, and for action film enthusiasts in general. There's really nothing not to like about it, and even the changes are done well. There a quirks and hiccups, but frankly you'll be too busy staring at the screen with your eyelids wide open taking in the spectacle to care. And when I said there were explosions, I meant it. Big explosions.

In 1983, a crack commando unit exploded onto our television screens with crazy stunts, insane plans and explosions everywhere you looked. Today, having been remade into a feature film, they still survive as childhood heroes. If you want to watch a movie, if everything else looks boring, and if you can get a ticket, maybe you should watch ... The A-Team!