Director Rod Holcomb
Starring George Peppard, Melinda Culea, Tim Dunigan, Mr. T & Dwight Schultz
Rated PG
Score 5/6
Here’s Something to stream if your stuck for something to watch on Netflix.
A journalist asks the A-Team to search for her missing colleague in Mexico; The A-Team must fight the drug lord who has imprisoned a journalist in Mexico.
For those of you who might not know The A-Team originally ran from January of 1983 to March 1987. A feature film based on the series was released in 2010 directed by Joe Carnahan starring Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quinton Jackson and Sharlto Copley.
It is also interesting to note that Dirk Benedict did not play Faceman in this episode, the role was originally played by Tim Dunigan. Something I did not realise the last time I watched this. Apparently Dunigan was replaced because he was thought by the same executives to look too young to be a believable Vietnam veteran, and he was, 6’5″ (196 cm) much taller than the rest of the cast.
Okay, yes this a little bit dated and the action sequences are certainly very cheesy, but I have to admit The A-Team is still able to make me smile. For those of you who might not have this DVD its currently available to stream on 9Now, I stumbled across this a couple of days ago.
I didn’t notice the last time I watched this the last time I watched The A-Team but it was nice to see a slight nod to the Seven Samurai with the plot of this episode. The A-Team gadgets are always fun and creative, though the gadget in this episode maybe isn’t the most creative. How many people out there have wondered who is the worst shot, anybody on The A-Team television show or an Imperial Stormtrooper from Star Wars?
There are some great funny moments throughout the episode a lot of them belonged to ‘Howling Mad’ Murdock who was portrayed brilliantly by Dwight Schultz.
One of my biggest disappointments about the 2010 movie was that there was no mention about ‘the Jazz’ or a line about Hannibal ‘being on the Jazz’ because it is a term that is used throughout the series. There is a scene with BA and Amy Amanda Allen (Mr T and Melinda Culea) which I think is the best explanation of what is like to be ‘on the Jazz’.