The A-Team - The Film

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Movie
German title The A-Team - The Film
Original title The A team
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2010
length 117 minutes, Extended Cut 134 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 12
Rod
Director Joe Carnahan
script Joe Carnahan
Brian Bloom
Skip Woods
production Stephen J. Cannell
Jules Daly
Tony Scott
Spike Seldin
Iain Smith
Alex Young
music Alan Silvestri
camera Mauro Fiore
cut Roger Barton
Jim May
occupation

The A-Team - The film is a 2010 action film directed by Joe Carnahan based on the television series The A-Team .

action

Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith has been captured by corrupt Mexican officers who work for the renegade General Tuco. Hannibal escapes and tries everything to free his comrade Templeton "Faceman" Peck , who is now being held by Tuco on his ranch. On the way to the ranch he meets the dishonorable dismissed ranger Corporal Bosco "BA" Baracus , with whom he wants to free Face. Both rescue Face and stop near a hospital on the run to persuade the insane pilot, Captain HM "Howling Mad" Murdock , to fly her to the United States. In a rescue helicopter they engage Tuco in an aerial battle in which both helicopters fly over the border into the United States. Tucos helicopter is shot down by a fighter plane over American soil. As a result of these experiences, BA now suffers from a fear of flying.

“ Eight years and 80 successful missions later, ” the team, now a highly respected elite unit, is stationed in Iraq . Hannibal is contacted by CIA agent Lynch, who informs him that rebels have obtained US dollar printing plates . Lynch wants the team to the plates and the money already produced worth one billion US dollars appropriates from Baghdad using a truck to be taken away. Meanwhile, DCIS Captain Charisa Sosa shows up and warns her former lover Face not to carry out the mission, despite despising him and the whole team. Against the advice of the commanding officer , General Morrison, Hannibal agrees to steal the plates, even though this is to be done in an unofficial " Black Ops " mission. The course of the operation itself is spectacular and crowned with success. However, when the four return to base to hand over the plates to General Morrison, his Humvee explodes before their eyes. Seconds later, the salvaged freight container , which only contained the cash, exploded as the employees of the private security company "Blackforest" under the direction of Brock Pike, who are responsible for the two explosions, had already obtained the printing plates. Morrison, who was the only one who could testify that the team followed an order, is now considered dead. Everyone involved is dishonorably released and sentenced to ten years in various maximum security prisons.

Six months later, Hannibal is visited by Lynch in prison. Lynch tells Hannibal that Pike is trying to cover up the sale of the printing plates to an Arab. Hannibal, who is already pursuing Pike himself, enters into a deal with Lynch that provides for the files of the entire A-Team to be cleaned up and for their military ranks to be returned to them if he can get the records for Lynch. Lynch agrees and Hannibal escapes from prison with his help. He frees Face by using a hand truck to drive away a solarium in which Face is currently staying. BA escapes because Hannibal tears down the emergency exit door of the prisoner transport with a harpoon. Murdock escapes by Hannibal fetching him from a German veteran hospital in Mannheim by breaking through one of the building's outer walls with a Humvee . Meanwhile, Sosa, demoted to First Lieutenant due to the loss of the pressure plates , is on their heels. Suspecting they are acting on behalf of Pike, she tries to stop them before they can escape in a Lockheed C-130 Hercules . The plane is shot down by a Reaper drone , but the team survives inside an on-board tank that falls into a lake while hanging from a parachute .

They track down the unknown Arab and Pike in Frankfurt , go on the offensive, take possession of the printing plates and take the Arab prisoner. The team members are surprised that the Arab is General Morrison, only Hannibal had foreseen this turnaround. Morrison had worked with Lynch and Pike to steal the printing plates but then teamed up with Pike to trick Lynch into faking his death. When Lynch receives a call from Hannibal and learns that Morrison is alive, he orders an air strike to kill all members of the A-Team as well as Morrison in one fell swoop. The team narrowly escapes the attack, but Morrison is killed.

When Hannibal appears at a loss for the first time and the four have to realize that they are standing with their backs to the wall, Face develops a plan. Hannibal sets up a meeting with Sosa on a cargo ship in the Port of Los Angeles and tells her that he will give her the printing plates and Morrison in exchange for his freedom. Hannibal knows that Sosa's phone line is being monitored by Lynch and that he falls for this bluff. Face then calls Sosa on a phone that he recently gave her at the train station in Frankfurt and is not monitored. Lynch hires Pike and sets up a trap for the team at the port. Face then starts a series of distraction maneuvers to stir up Lynch's team and involve Lynch directly in the action. The plan goes awry almost, firing as Pike a rocket on the cargo ship and the disaster comes the ship. Pike is caught and killed by BA. Lynch tracks down Hannibal and the supposed Morrison, whose head is covered by a hood, and shoots the man who is bound in the head. Then he lets himself into a fist fight with Hannibal. Hannibal proves to be the stronger until Lynch can take the weapon from him. At that moment, the upper part of the cargo container in which they are rises, whereupon Sosa and many heavily armed agents witness the event. The supposed Morrison is Murdock, who wears a modified Kevlar helmet . Lynch is taken into custody by the CIA. Contrary to expectations, the A-Team is also arrested because they had escaped from custody. Sosa is promoted to captain again because she managed to get the printing plates back into American possession. Sosa promises the team to free it as soon as possible. She kisses Face deeply before he is loaded into a military van . Inside the car, the A-Team talks about its unfortunate situation. Hannibal's joy, however, is unclouded and he points to the key in Face's mouth, which Sosa gave him with the kiss. Face says, based on Hannibal's motto: "I love it when a plan works!"

background

The film was in various places in the Canadian province of British Columbia turned, including in Vancouver , Surrey , Ashcroft , Cache Creek , Kamloops , Burnaby and Coquitlam and in Cold Lake in the province of Alberta . Filming began on September 14, 2009 and ended on December 18, 2009. The budget is estimated at around 110 million US dollars . The first movie trailer was released in the United States on January 8, 2010. The second film trailer was released in the United States on April 1, 2010. As early as February 2010, a series of comics were announced that show the background to the film and their release in the United States began in March. The comics were published by IDW Publishing and written by Carnahan and Chuck Dixon . In the United States, Jazware started selling toys for movies when it hit theaters.

The film premiered in Los Angeles on June 3, 2010 at Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard . Liam Neeson drove the A-Team van , Bradley Cooper and Sharlto Copley drove up in a replica of the M1 Abrams tank . The film was shown in US cinemas from June 11, 2010. It was launched on June 16, 2010 in Switzerland and on August 12, 2010 in Germany and Austria . On the opening weekend, almost $ 25.7 million was raised in the USA. In total, over $ 77.2 million was raised in the United States. The advertising of the film in Bremen attracted attention when illegal guerrilla marketing was carried out in the form of images sprayed on with stencils on the Osterdeich and other parts of the city . Although the film distribution and the Bremen cinemas deny responsibility, the city authorities initiated administrative fines. This illegal marketing campaign has also been observed in other cities. Two of the sprayers were identified and arrested in Düsseldorf and the proceedings were discontinued.

Various actors were considered for the cast of the A-Team. Bruce Willis was originally slated for the role of Hannibal. In addition, there were rumors that Common , Ice Cube and The Game were traded for the role of BAs. For the role of Murdock, Woody Harrelson and Ryan Reynolds came into question. Amber Heard and Olga Kurylenko were invited to the casting for the role of Sosa . John Singleton was initially on board as a director, but left the film project when the film studio decided to turn around. Mr. T declined to make a cameo because he saw no reason to appear in the film without representing his original role from the TV series. After the credits, there are two scenes in which Face and Murdock each meet their old actors from the TV series, Dwight Schultz and Dirk Benedict . In the Extended Version, these scenes are embedded in the plot: Dirk Benedict can be seen getting out of the solarium, shortly before the scene in which Hannibal fetches Face from the psychiatric clinic; Dwight Schultz is one of the doctors overseeing Murdock's electroshock therapy. With another cameo, Jon Hamm can be seen as Agent Lynch towards the end of the film. A reinterpretation of the opening trailer of the original series can be seen at the beginning of the credits .

One scene of the film takes place on a train station in Frankfurt am Main . This is mentioned in the dialogues and in the fade-ins, and a bus with the logo of the Verkehrsgesellschaft Frankfurt with the destination Kaiserstraße and the - albeit incorrect - license plate FF of Frankfurt (Oder) , which is affixed several times to various vehicles , can be seen. In fact, an aerial photo of Cologne was used, showing Cologne Central Station and Cologne Cathedral . The only material from Frankfurt am Main are individual skyline shots. On the other hand, all the outdoor shots that take place in Frankfurt am Main were shot in Vancouver . Furthermore, the embassy of the United States is not located in Frankfurt am Main, where there is only one consulate, as in the film, but in Berlin . Furthermore, advertising for a Berlin fitness studio is made on a supposed Frankfurt taxi . The wrong emergency number 109 is found on the police cars. Furthermore, some of the scenes were even shot in Norway without paying attention to the linguistic differences, so that police officers wear the word “politi” while “passkontroll” can be read at passport control. The Swiss license plate, which can be seen in front of the Königsbank in the film, contains four characters, including the letter "Q", which does not correspond to a valid license plate. In addition, the agent of the Ministry of Defense uses a cell phone, a Nokia E71 , which Faceman gave her before, which she slides open like a slider cell phone, although this cell phone does not support this function. In psychiatry , in the Murdock was detained when the patient 3D glasses received, Murdock has a conversation with a patient who is both with and without seeing such a 3D glasses.

The name " Reginald Barclay " can be seen in the film that Murdock is sent to the mental hospital . This is the name of a character that Dwight Schultz , who played Murdock in the series version, played in various Star Trek series. Sharlto Copley, who played Murdock, was banned by his mother from watching the TV series " The A-Team ". As a child, however, he defied this ban by watching the series on friends' premises. He said he called his mother immediately after receiving the role of Murdock to tell her it was a defiant reaction because he was not allowed to watch the series as a child.

When the A-Team drives the tank out of the lake after a drone shot down the plane, Murdock asks an elderly lady for directions to Frankfurt. In the Original Version, Murdock asks the lady for directions to Berlin. The outlines of the lake shown in the aerial photo correspond to Lake Hallstatt . One of the judges in the military tribunal, which the A-Team has to face, has the same name as the director, since it is his father John Carnahan . The cargo ship that brings the A-Team to the LA Docks is called "The Retribution". The old cargo ship at the hut where the A-Team and General Morrison rescued is called: "Valkyrie", which can be seen when Col. John Hannibal Smith telephones with Lynch.

The mercenary company "Blackforest" appearing in the film is an allusion to the real existing company Blackwater, which today operates as a private security and military company under the name Academi . When releasing Face at the beginning of the film, Hannibal uses a Ruger AC556K / Mini-14 / F30GB, a rifle that is often used in the series. "Pity" and "Fool", the lettering from BA's tattoos on the hands, are allusions to the serial actor of Baracus, Mr. T , in Rocky 3 - The Tiger's Eye , as well as to the character he often used in the original version of " A -Team ”series used the saying“ I pity the fool ”.

When the inmates of the psychiatric clinic want to watch a film, a patient calls out, “That's 3D, man! I used to know a 3D film and everyone in there was blue! ”. This is a tribute to Avatar - Journey to Pandora by James Cameron . When the A-Team freed Murdock, he destroyed the cockpits of the parked F-18 aircraft when the C-130 took off. The F-18s are only flown by the Navy and Marine Corps, but Murdock is freed from a US base in Mannheim , the Coleman Barracks , where such machines are not even stationed.

In the scene in which Lynch orders the air strike on the A-Team and Morrison, he monitors the process on a laptop. The black and white thermal view of the gunner is shown on this. After the supposedly successful action, Lynch calls out: “Hey, that looks exactly like Call of Duty!” This is an allusion to a mission of the computer game Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare by Infinity Ward , in which the player is in control over the gunner of a Lockheed AC-130 . The view of this mission is the same as on Lynch's laptop.

Soundtrack

On December 1, 2009, Alan Silvestri announced that he would compose the music for the film.

The soundtrack contains 16 pieces of music.

No. title Duration
1. Somewhere In Mexico / Original "The A-Team (Theme)" 2:12
2. Saving Face 3:32
3. Alpha Mike Foxtrot 4:29
4th Welcome to Baghdad 4:22
5. The plan 6:11
6th Court Martial 3:09
7th Putting The Team Back Together 3:39
8th. Flying A tank 6:10
9. Frankfurt 4:11
10. Retrieving The Plates 4:09
11. Safehouse 3:50
12. Safehouse Aftermath 4:58
13. Shell Game 2:44
14th The Docks Part 1 7:35
15th The Docks Part 2 5:47
16. "I Love It When A Plan Comes Together" / Original "The A-Team (Theme)" 5:26

reception

With a rating of 48% by Rotten Tomatoes , the film received mixed media coverage.

The world praised the acting performance: "Liam Neeson stands as" A-Team "boss Hannibal and cuts a fine figure as an action star - just like Bradley Cooper as Face, Sharlto Copley as Murdock and Martial-Art- Fighter Quinton Jackson as replacement for Mr. T. "His acting skills are limited, but he has great muscles." Criticized director Joe Carnahan, who cuts one action sequence to the other, makes extensive use of the stylistic device of slow motion and portraits of explosions films. "

The Süddeutsche Zeitung rated the film significantly worse: “No picture stands so long that you could understand it - to organize it. It is also an art that one can and would like to follow the action; one that Joe Carnahan cannot master. "The A-Team" feels like an endless trailer, a thousand fragments that don't come together. "

Der Spiegel was similarly critical : “The A-Team owes its reincarnation in the cinema to the director Joe Carnahan […], who is making such a riot with a nine-figure budget that the actors have to shout their few lines of dialogue to avoid the noise of the To drown out explosions. The ironic gesture of the series is also drowned in the noise. ”[…]“ The fact that » Schindler's List « star Liam Neeson wanders through the scenes ”gives the film“ an involuntary tragedy ”.

Production costs were estimated at $ 110 million. The film grossed around US $ 177 million in cinemas worldwide.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for Das A-Team - The film . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , July 2010 (PDF; test number: 123 495 K).
  2. ↑ Age rating for Das A-Team - Der Film . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ↑ Locations according to the Internet Movie Database
  4. ↑ a b c d budget and box office results according to the Internet Movie Database
  5. ↑ The A-Team Trailer . Retrieved May 17, 2010.
  6. ↑ Alex Billington: Must Watch: Second Brand New Trailer for Fox's The A-Team . Firstshowing.net. April 1, 2010. Retrieved June 10, 2010.
  7. ^ THE A-TEAM Comic Book Series Will Act as a Prequel to the Movie . Collider.com. February 23, 2010. Retrieved May 17, 2010.
  8. ↑ Liam Neeson stars at A-Team movie premiere
  9. ↑ 'A-Team' Premiere: Bradley Cooper In A Tank, Liam Neeson & Jessica Biel (PHOTOS)
  10. ↑ a b Start dates according to the Internet Movie Database
  11. ↑ Cinema release in August: The A-Team is coming back ( Memento of the original from June 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , RP Online , June 4, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rp-online.de
  12. ↑ Article in the Bremer Anzeiger from July 25, 2010, No. 59, H 25125
  13. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Background information according to the Internet Movie Database
  14. ↑ a b c d Film errors according to the Internet Movie Database
  15. ↑ "Alan Silvestri has been slated to score 'The A-Team' for director Joe Carnahan" ( Memento of the original from June 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (12-01-2009); cf. "Alan Silvestri slated to score 'The A-Team'" ( Memento of the original from December 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( Movie Score Magazine , 12-02-2009).  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / alansilvestri.com @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / moviescoremagazine.com
  16. ↑ Film reviews by Rotten Tomatoes
  17. ↑ “The» A-Team «is back in the cinemas” , Die Welt , Harald Peters, August 12, 2010
  18. ↑ "Cinema program in Munich and nationwide"  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 25, 2010@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.sueddeutsche.de  
  19. ↑ Cinema in brief. Der Spiegel , August 9, 2010, accessed July 17, 2013 .
  20. ^ The A-Team (2010) - Box Office Mojo. Retrieved October 23, 2019 .