Movie Review: The A-Team
They get it done, minus the bloodshed
About one billion years ago, before phones were mobile and computers ruled the world, a television series called The A-Team fuelled the adventurous dreams of every boy and man.
In this weekly 1980s show, four elite soldiers who had escaped from prison (after being falsely accused of crimes they didn’t commit) helped people “solve problems”. These problems usually involved battling wealthy baddies, with The A-Team using cool contraptions they built in a few minutes from whatever was lying around in a barn.
In between explosions, chases and loving it when a plan comes together, The A-Team – leader Hannibal (George Peppard), smooth Faceman (Dirk Benedict), mohawked BA Baracus (Mr T) and cuckoo Murdock (Dwight Schultz) – would tease, annoy and amuse each other in equal measure.
Finally, after years of delays, The A-Team has made it to the silver screen.
The good news for fans of the original series is that this blockbuster version does fitting justice to where it’s come from, as well as rocketing it into the stratosphere of modern action films.
Those who have never seen the 1980s program may find it odd that The A-Team movie barely contains any blood and guts, despite the amount of bullets and bombs. But those who know the show will recall how The A-Team never showed people dying or being graphically hurt.
What do you reckon about that? Is it too silly to pretend people aren’t hurt by violence, or refreshing that a spectacular, nonsense action movie is not full of gore and carnage?
As Hannibal (played by Liam Neeson) states during The A-Team: “We can get it done, minus the bloodshed.” How many times have you been turned off a film because it could not “get it done, minus the bloodshed”?
At times and in certain contexts, demonstrating the devastating effects of violence can be an important deterrent and vital statement. But we live in a world where we can see so much violence (on and off screens), we become desensitised to it is impact.
Oddly, a film which cuts back on its violent content may shock audiences more than one that is stuffed with excessive aggression. Wow; there’s nothing The A-Team can’t do.
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