news Link with short vid…

It’s been more than 20 years since the A-team amped up to give the bad guys a beat down.
The action is bigger in this reboot of the popular 1980s TV show.

In case you’re not familiar with them, a primer: The A-Team is a four man band of ex-U.S. Army Special Forces/Vietnam War veterans/fugitives on the run for war crimes they didn’t commit who become mercenaries for hire. Over-the-top violence and cartoon-like action characterized the 1980s TV series based on their misadventures. Come June 11, the gang’s getting back together, and the movie version of the classic show is poised to be one of the summer’s biggest blockbusters.

But of course, the people playing the parts of Hannibal, Faceman, Howling Mad and Bad Attitude aren’t the same ones who graced TV screens in the 1980s. Even the A-team can’t escape getting older, and a new crop of actors has been brought in to get the job done. This time, they’re united by their shared status as Iraq war veterans

Dirk Benedict played smooth-talking Faceman (aka Face) in the original “A-Team” series. As the A-Team’s resident con man and pretty boy, he charmed his way into getting supplies the crew needed and emerged from dangerous endeavors unscathed, cleanly styled, cigar in hand. After “The A-Team” went off the air in 1987, Benedict tried his hand at theater, attempting the title role in Shakespeare’s Hamlet and earning poor reviews. Then it was on to film. He starred in 1993’s “Shadow Force” and in 2000 wrote and directed his first screenplay, “Cahoots.”

A foreign film and a TV movie later, Benedict dipped his toe in the waters of reality TV, competing in the U.K. version of “Celebrity Big Brother” in 2007. His “A-Team” fame followed him there: a replica of the A-Team van brought Benedict and his character’s signature cigar onto the set as the A-Team theme tune blasted in the background. He ended up scoring third place in the competition.

Benedict divorced his wife, actress Toni Hudson, in 1995. They had wed in 1986 after she appeared in an episode of “The A-Team.” They have two sons together. Benedict has another son from a previous relationship. In 1975, Benedict was diagnosed with prostate cancer and adopted a macrobiotic diet to better his health. He wrote a book about advocating a macrobiotic lifestyle in 1991, “Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy.”

“Hangover” star Bradley Cooper is charged with bringing Benedict’s character to the big screen this summer. With a buff body and an enviable head of hair he’s got the handsome part down. Benedict himself makes an appearance in the “A-Team” movie as well.

A happy dance is being done by me!

Oh, yeah. I’ll be going to see this movie. And the wife is looking forward to it, too.

Just from the trailer it looks like it’s going to be fun.

i

It was a fun movie. Nothing amazingly spectacular, as you hopefully would not expect it to be. But it was fun and full of A-Teamy goodness.

kennenlernen - 16 June 2010 01:51 PM

i

Were you able to see it then, Tah?  I’m always slightly apprehensive about remakes. i hope this one didn’t fall for the common trap of trying to “outdo” the original…

Anne’s sister was in town and the three of us went to see it. We all enjoyed it, as I said, and thought it was properly fitting being A-Teamish in quality. Not as campy as the show was, but a fun romp.

I watched it as well.  I can’t really compare it to the series, as I’ve only seen a couple episodes.  But it did seem as though the characters in the movie interacted with each other in the same was as they did in the series, and it certainly had the same ridiculously crazy and over-the-top sort of action sequences as the series did (though with a bigger budget and better effects).  It was pretty fun and an okay movie, if you don’t go in expecting it to be anything more deep and thought-out than its source material.

Although there is one difference that I did notice between the series and the movie that I did notice:  in the series, apparently in spite of all the flying bullets and explosions and whatnot nobody usually got killed or even seriously hurt.  The movie is significantly different in that regard, though of course the good guys (being the good guys) are not simply mowing down hordes of people without a thought.