The A-Team
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Cast: Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Jessica Biel, Quinton Jackson, Sharlto Copley
Extras: Two Movie versions, Featurettes, Deleted Scenes, Gag Reel, Digital Copy
Rating:
I wasn't sure if a feature film remake of a TV series would really fly, but I was definitely willing to give it a shot when 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment's Blu-Ray version of "The A-Team" arrive in our offices. Promising to provide a good deal of action, and hopefully the same kind of light-hearted humor that made the series so enjoyable, I was so ready for it.
Colonel Hannibal Smith (Liam Neeson) is putting together a Special Forces unit to handle some of the more unpleasant cases the military has to deal with. Cases the public shouldn't necessarily know about.
When intel surfaces that shows that money forgers are preparing to flood the market with counterfeit dollars on a scale that could threaten global economies, Smith's "A-Team" is brought in to recover the printing plates that are being used for the purpose. Having been stolen from the US Treasury they would make the counterfeit money indistinguishable from real dollars.
Using state of the art equipment and a radically imaginative plan, the A-Team quickly recovers the printing plates and manages to destroy the counterfeit money, but soon they realize that they had been set up. They had been part of a bigger scheme and suddenly find themselves court-martialed and imprisoned while someone else got away with the printing plates.
Clearly, the A-Team will not stand for this and the boys orchestrate a series of prison breaks to spring all members and go after the man who set them up with full force.
Starring Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper and Jessica Biel among others, the film is indeed a blast and certainly fun to watch. It does have its downsides as well, as the plot feels a bit convoluted at times with the structure getting in the way of the narrative, as it seems to try to be deliberately "different" and hip.
I did enjoy the move overall, however, and had a great time see the ragtag bunch trying to make their way back to redemption.
The Blu-Ray disc contains both the theatrical cut of the movie as well as an unrated extended cut. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is presenting "The A-Team" in a pristine high definition transfer on this release, dishing out a picture that is incredibly detailed and rich. Colors are vibrant throughout, rich and saturated, ensuring a look that is bold and modern. At the same time solid black levels give the image good visual depth and render shadows deeply without breaking up.
A DTS 5.1 HD Master Audio track is complementing the presentation of the movie. Explosive and bombastic, the track fulfills all the requirements for action movies. Thundering in the lower register, the subwoofer is given thorough workout here while the high end of the spectrum is reproduced in a clear and undistorted presentation.
Dialogues are well integrated, always level and never drowned out by the aggressive sound effects.
The release comes with a number of extras, including a digital copy of the movie. Further you will find a number of featurettes on the release, covering various aspects of the production. Also included are some deleted scenes and a gag reel, as well as montage.
"The A-Team" delivers what it promises. Simple, mind-numbing fun that is full of explosions and action, spiced up with a good sense of humor. It is not the greatest action film around but it's well worth checking out.
