Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5690 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-09-18
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Formats: Box set, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 6
• Running time: 1020 minutes

Synopsis
Television producer Stephen J. Cannell (Hunter, Wiseguy, 21 Jump Street) scored one of the earliest of his many 1980s hits with The A-Team. A group of Vietnam veterans falsely accused of a crime during the last days of the conflict, the A-Team was made up of cigar-chomping leader Hannibal (George Peppard), tough guy B.A. Baracus (Mr. T), suave con man Face (Dirk Benedict), and paranoid pilot Murdock (Dwight Schultz). The team survived through employment as soldiers of fortune, humiliating their foes, and standing up for the little guy.

From The Studio
Jump back into the black van and rejoin The A-Team in all 22 explosive Season Four episodes --their most action-packed adventures yet! Team up again with B.A., Hannibal, Murdock and Face as they take on hardhearted kidnappers, corrupt millionaires, ruthless drug dealers, and even a Mob kingpin. Joining Mr. T and the rest of the gang are some of television’s greatest guest stars, including Rick James, Hulk Hogan, Pat Sajak, Vanna White, and eighties’ icon Boy George.

Customer Reviews

A serious decline in quality
By Season Four, the people behind The A-Team just put less and less effort into the story and opted for the same old, same old formulaic nonsense with fake car chases, phony crashes, obvious stunt doubles and poorly integrated stock footage.

Only about half of the episodes are worth watching, while the rest are so mundane to the point of being down right awful. The 'Uncle Buckle-Up' episode in particular is just horrendous and the infamous 'Cowboy George' (my eyes, MY EYES!!!) really is as bad as you've heard. I haven't seen it for years (I skipped right over it on this box set) but I remember wishing that ground would just open up and swallow me, it was that bad. At one point you can even see Dirk Benedict barely containing his embarrassment.

The best episodes are not necessarily the ones with the best action and stories. When the show makes the most of out the four characters (usually with an amusing running joke with Murdoch) it can be highly watchable. A young Hulk Hogan even joins in for a couple of episodes.

The over-zealous Decker is replaced by equally incompetent General Fullbright in this season but he ends up being killed-off in the last episode (further proof that people DID die in this show), which is actually a complete rip-off of Rambo - First Blood Part 2 [Blu-ray] [1985], to the point of even hiring the same actors for the same kind of roles.

Thankfully, things really picked up for Season 5, though I can still only reccomend this to hardcore A-Team completists.

The DVD presents the show in absolutely shocking quality. Shot on 35mm film there are a couple of shots that are surprisingly crisp and colorful but I'm afraid that the rest of it is grainy, washed-out and as dull as dish water. The thin Mono soundtracks fail to impress also, and there are no worthy extra features.

ESCAPISM
You can't help loving them. Four nutters who served in Vietnam and now offer to sort out baddies for a living.

Who can forget those busy scenes, surrounded by heavily armed baddies in a farm barn with nothing but a bag of nuts, a tractor, egg whisk and an old Dyson hoover, quickly converted into an armoured tank with machine guns, flamethrower and easy empty bag. The great thing was the way the bad guys were happy to wait while the team welded things together and designed everything. I have never seen so many bombs and bullets fired without a single fatality, on either side !!

Great stuff for granny and the kids aswell.

Possibly the greatest mix of action with comedy ever
The A-Team is a programme that would be a complete and utter waste of even just thinking of remaking, no matter how talented a person was or how hard they tried it would never and I mean never match this, because everything about it feels as though it is how it was meant to be, that and the fact that it is one of the best pieces of television ever that successfully mixes action with comedy and does it so brilliantly. Now I have got that out of the way I will briefly, if you have never seen it that is, tell you a little of what all the fuss is about. To explain it as simply as possible it is about a group of soldiers who are on the run from the military for a crime that they did not commit. That in itself is rather tricky. But at the same time as all this, they help people (any people, it could be you, me or somebody you know, although you have to find them first) with problems for example whether it be somebody has been kidnapped or being forced to pay someone protection money to avoid there restaurant being vandalised etc. or just generally being bullied. Whatever the problem is they have all got one thing in common, and that is in the end The A-Team will defeat the bad guys (usually deadly serious and smug, which make it all the more satisfying and amusing that they get what they deserve in the end) responsible, but in the process hurt them as little as possible. So by the end of each episode, the innocent victims involved can get on with their tedious lives and The A-Team can get on with helping another poor soul, although sometimes they have to escape from the military before they can move on. Below is a little information on the members of The A-Team.

Hannibal (my personal favourite) - In charge of the team (and rightly so given is age and experience) and loves it when plans come together, adores his cigars, looks for acting roles in between missions and is very witty, especially love it when he's on the jazz and uses his acting talents to disguise himself as various made up characters. George Peppard played this role with such coolness.

Face - Ladies man and likes to do as little manual work as possible, tries to fight as little as possible (although he can fight) and uses his conman skills to get various things, for example if they ever need a helicopter Face is your man, if the team need to get Murdock out of the nuthouse Face is your man, in general if The A-Team need anything for a mission, then it is no problem for the Faceman. I particularly find it funny the way he comes across as a bit of a snob and secretly looks down at the others.

Murdock - Completely mad but extremely funny (overall the funniest character), winds B.A. up all the time and his pilot skills are essential to the team. Hides out in a nuthouse and I'm still not 100% sure if he really is or really isn't.

B.A. - The gold chain wearing hardman of the team, loves his van and if some kind of weapon needs to be made, then he can make them unbelievably(still entertaining) out of almost anything. Arguably the most caring team member, hates flying. Love the way he fools the team into thinking he's about to do something really bad to them after they put him to sleep to get him on a plane.

Just in case you are wondering and can't remember, this is the season with Boy George and Hulk Hogan in as guest stars. Anyway I hope this helps anybody that is interested to know what kind of programme this is, like I said, it is possibly the greatest mix of action with comedy ever.