Childhood Heroes

Just finished watching The A-Team movie, and I love it! A lot of my friends liked it, but for me, it's different. It's kinda personal. The A-Team were my childhood heroes. I was 3 years old when the series first came out, and I was almost 7 years old when it got cancelled, so before I knew any superheroes back then, Hannibal, Face, BA and Murdock were my superheroes.

I'm glad that Director Joe Carnahan was very faithful to the original, and even paying homage to it. The cast payed homage to those who played the roles before them, and they also added their own personal touches that made them own their roles. Liam Neeson was amazing as he always is, and brought back memories of the late George Peppard. Bradley Cooper was more rugged in the movie as Face compared to Dirk Benedict. At first, I thought Quinton Jackson was a lot softer as BA, but then I realized that he made Bosco Albert Baracus more human, more realistic than the always-bitter soldier portrayed by Mr. T many years ago. Sharlto Copley, for me, is the revelation in the movie. Dwight Schultz made Howling Mad Murdock one of the most lovable characters on TV, and Sharlto was able to channel that and make the character his own. He was good in District 9, he is superb as the new Murdock in The A-Team. The rapport of BA and Murdock was lacking in the movie, but I don't blame them since it's just the first movie. Give them more time and they'd get the chemistry of Dwight and Mr.T.


It's also good to know that the writers have modernized the story by making them Iraq war heroes as to the Vietnam war heroes that they were in the series, at the same time, using the original theme as well as ending the movie with the narration that started the introduction of the series.

One last thing that made the movie nostalgic was the GMC van. It was so beautiful of the filmmakers to include the van in the movie, never mind if it only appeared in the first 15 minutes of the movie. They were able to really replicate the original van with just two very minor alterations, the color of the mugs and the red line at the side of the van.

Overall, it was a wonderful experience watching my childhood heroes being introduced to the new generation.