ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

Bud's Action Flix Pix

Who could NOT love a movie in which a team of crazy super-soldiers are trying to escape in a huge military transport with a tank in the cargo bay, and when the plane is damaged, they bail out . . . in the tank?

As the tank is descending via three parachutes, the team uses the machine gun and the cannon to battle the drones that whiz around firing at them.

And then they fire the cannon repeatedly to push the falling tank sideways towards a lake which is almost-but-not-quite below them, where the tank splashes down, sinks . . . and then drives out again!

Just one example of the imaginative action this movie presents. I love it. It's very faithful and respectful to the original TV series.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one, Bud. I loved the TV series; did not care for the movie.

Sure, the action scenes & visual FX were stunning, no question about it. The finale with all those cargo containers was waaay over the top. Even for The A-Team.

It became visually & physically exhausting to watch.
We've all discussed those issues on here with regards to today's films.

They are aimed at the video game generation. They want tons of action, tons of stunts, tons of visuals, & the plot & dialogue be dammed. These movies become non-stop high speed roller coasters from start to finish.

I'm one who grew up with movies where the plot & dialogue counted for something essential to the films. The Alamo, The Great Escape, The Longest Day, Thunderball; these movies most certainly were about action, stunts, & visuals.

However, they were also about conversations, character, subtlety . . . quiet moments.

Today's films have none of this. Its hit you over the head with the action/FX stick until the film ends & only then you can come up gasping for air.

Yeah, the TV A-Team had crazy, fun stuff going on but there were quiet moments & dialogue mattered at times.

I also did not care for the end where Hannibul did not have a "plan that came together", but it was Face that came to the rescue & created it instead.

On the TV show Hannibul was the leader, he came up with the strategies. Yes, the others also contributed but he was the man.

I felt that they had Face do it in the film just because the actor, Bradley Cooper is the big heart throb these days.

He's also a fine actor to be sure but it wasn't his place to take over the lead. And that's just what he did.

The actor portraying "Howling Mad Murdock" just could not equal Dwight Schultz in my opinion.

He was okay but never captured the character for me like Dwight did on the series.

Nope, this was The B-Team at best.

[Bud Brewster]

Your less enthusiastic response to the movie is perfectly understandable. I agree that movies these days are louder and faster than I'd prefer, and The A-Team is a prime example of that.

As for the TV show, our differing attitudes towards it is a direct result of why I really liked the movie, while you didn't care for it as much. I was never a fan of the show, but I did know enough about it to recognize the ways the movie honored it and tried to go it one better in some ways. After all, a big budget movie should turn up the heat a bit when it brings an 80s weekly series to the big screen.

For example, I loved the way they turned the somewhat two-dimensional B.A. into a more complex character. And I think the switcheroo at the end when somebody other than Hannibal came up with a plan was a nice way to do something unexpected.

But these are just examples of the way our initial expectations were different.

You wanted a strict adherence to the show's basic elements (as a fan of the show, that's only natural). But I wanted them to play around with those elements and change things a bit (as a mere "interested party", that's also natural).

It's the old, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" situation. You thought the show was fine the way it was (not perfect, just plenty good enough), but I thought it was fertile ground for some interesting modifications.

Let me put it another way. If we both looked at this picture of Rebecca Romijn, I would say, "Wow, she's perfect! She's even wearing my favorite color!"

But you might say, "Yep, she's spectacular . . . but I wish that dress was green."



(Somebody is going to say, "Hey, who cares what color the dress is?" It's inevitable . . . )
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Brent Gair]

[orzel-w]

Ooh! I could so wear that sport coat.
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...or not...

WayneO
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[Pow]

Nope, that blue dress works just fine for me, Bud

Or no dress.

That Jerry O'Connell must do a lot of sliding with Rebecca.

[Bud Brewster]