I love it when a Film comes together.

I recently saw the new A-Team remake and I thought I'd do a post on it.

For those who don't know, the A-Team was originally a US action TV series about an on the run military unit who helped out people in need. It ran from 1982-1987 and when shown in the UK when I was about 4 or 5 it was a major part of my childhood.

Unlike some of the other integral parts of my childhood, such as Knight Rider, which is still fun as an adult, the A-Team still stands up. It's not high art, but it treads a very fine line with comedy plans, situations and solutions to problems, played largely straight by the characters. When I heard there was a remake in the mix I had misgivings. The balance of comedy and action without the characters ever slipping into playing it for comedy would be a hard nut to crack. My biggest fears for a big budget remake were basically split into 3 groups.

1. Dark and gritty, yes it worked for Galactica, but making the A-Team a dark action film about hard-bitten soldiers would have at best been a good film, but it wouldn't be the A-Team.

2. The Starskey and Hutch route, going into it with a knowing silliness and straight comedy. Again could have been good, wouldn't have been The A-team

3. A Gangsta rapper being cast as BA. They;d be lining up to play a larger than life character originally portrayed by wrestler Mr T, and the studios would love the extra draw a Rapper would give, but I bet it would become a "Vehicle" film, with every other cast member becoming a cipher for BA to riff off of.

Fortunately, none of this happened. Instead the studio brought in Stephen J Cannell, one of the original creators and as a result what we got was a film that can be listed as the best of any of the recent spate of remakes. This is the A-team of my youth, its a perfect reproduction.

Laim Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Sharlto Copeley star as Hannibal, Face, BA and Murdoch respectively, the film tells an origin story (Which If I recall we never saw on the small screen). We see the gang get together and perform the heist that had them incarcerated, although the action is obviously moved to the Iraq war rather than Vietnam. After a double cross by some Private military Contractors our team find themselves Locked up in a maximum security stockade, they promptly escape and go out for revenge. Dogged by soldiers trying to retrieve them and a corrupt CIA agent they must uncover the conspiracy that landed them in jail.

The cast make the film, they nail the characters, ok so we have a slight subplot of Face making a plan instead, and a mentor/student relationship between Face and Hannibal, and a similar plot regarding a significantly less angry BA, but it doesn't jar or seem out of place even to an old fan such as myself. The Murdoch/BA bickering is note perfect (In fact Copeley is probably the best in his depiction of Murdoch, a character which could have easily descended into pratfalls and silly voices) we have OTT action, convoluted plans and baddies getting their comeuppance.

This film is not High art, but it left me with a huge grin on my face, to be honest a picture of my huge grin would have been a better, less wordy review.

The Mantra

No posts for a bit, been busy apologies to both my readers.

Our coalition government has now been running things for a few months now, and when I get round to it there will be a post about that, but it's not what I'm going to talk about today.

There are two untruths that are being repeated by the government, one is by both parties in the coalition and one is by the Tories principally. Untruths is perhaps a harsh word but it has the feeling of repeating an interpretation of events enough to make people believe it. So far at least question time audiences aren't convinced.

First, what I call The Mantra

Every time cuts, economic uncertainty and recession are mentioned, particularly when the con-dems are coming under fire for enacting the Tory dream of small state under the auspices of austerity measures they repeat the same thing. We're in this mess because Labour spent all the money on an unweildly large state. Keep an ear out, you'll hear it next time cuts are mentioned within earshot of one of the coalition.

I might be remembering wrong, but isn't our current economic state due to a global financial collapse caused by investment banks trading in toxic debt and making very risky investments for short-term gain, resulting in the treasury having to pay billions to bail out banks? Now, I grant if Labour had properly adhered to the Keynesian plan we should have had a surplus to deal with the inevitable recession and their state was getting pretty big, but the cause, no that was bad banking practice. In fact it was bad banking practice that has largely gone unchanged. The pain has not been felt in investment, due to that fun sub-myth that all our bankers will run off to more relaxed governments if we make things too hard for them. this is rubbish too, lets face it, they're not keen to leave London unless it's for somewhere like Switzerland or the nicer tax havens. And anyone who can go there was offered during the times of plenty, these places are not short on bankers.

Labour is getting it from the coalition for two reasons, the first is simple, The Tories and lib-dems stand to be really unpopular for some of the measures that need to be taken, trying to pass some of that buck to the previous administration is just politics. The other is far more Tory. Many Tories are bankers, or heavily linked to banks. Quite frankly it suits them to cover for their mates, after all favours and tips not to mention cushy jobs post government will be harder to come by if you pointed out your benefactors as the cause of all our woes. It also fits the Tory line that "Big State" caused all the problems not private enterprise. We'll see if this little bit of misinformation takes root.

Second, The Tories have a Mandate from the people.

We hear this a lot, the Tories are still trying to claim some sort of Victory from the Election (An Election that no-one one, let's make that clear) because their guy is in No 10. The only policies the Tories can claim a mandate from are the ones they shared in election manifestos with the Lib Dems, anything else over 60% of the population actually said they didn't want. So, massive cuts, nope,. Big society, no, repeal of fox-hunting, think not, Dismantling the BBC, was that in anyone's manifesto? Youd o hear Tories occasionally trying to claim victory, seemingly in the hope that we'll believe it and assume someone voted for this pap, or indeed that they're allowed to do this because they're in charge. Its worth reminding them this si not the case, more importantly, if your MP is an apologist, sorry Lib-Dem, make a noise, remind them that you and 60% of the population voted against this.

There are other little falsehoods being planted with the hope that they become accepted fact. I'm keeping an eye out for them and will try to blog about them when I can.