The A-Team
Alan Silvestri
" One Main theme doesn't make our day "Written by Thomas Glorieux - Review of the regular release
"In 1972 a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team"
For the people that stood by the A-Team every week, these words are a fond and happy memory to a nostalgic time of action, comedy, babes and let's not forget guys flying over the cameras like it was a weekly routine. All this typical entertainment meant something for the fans that continuously kept watching The A-team as it boosted critical response during the first 2 seasons. After that things slowed down, but real fans never forgot the easy likeable charm the cast gave the viewers each and every time. It was then also for many a wonderful surprise to discover that somebody, somehow would make a movie version out of it.
The A-Team: The Movie stars terrific look a like characters Liam Neeson (John "Hannibal" Smith), Bradley Cooper (Templeton "Faceman" Peck), Quinton Jackson (B.A. Baracus) and District 9 star Shartlto Copley (H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock), whilst delivering us a fun if unfaithful representation to the original series. Music wise only one thing was on the mind of all the fans of the show: would the main theme (one of the most known tunes in the entire world) appear throughout the movie itself? The answer would be, not like we would have liked it.
Composer Alan Silvestri, usually a safe bet for these kinds of motion pictures returns after a fun if overtly standard score for G.I. Joe: The Movie. And it is safe to state that Alan Silvestri doesn't change a lot from his last action score. The tempo, the sound, the ideas at times share remarkable similarities with the previous summer blockbuster score. In the end this isn't such a bad thing, but we demand a lot more from Silvestri, and we also demand that soundtrack producers need to realize that a soundtrack doesn't need to listen 70 minutes long each time to warrant a good release.
Opening The A-Team, we discover that the classic main theme (composed by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter) will not appear the way we would have liked it. No, the attention is drawn more to Silvestri's own new main theme, which is a fun if again typical tune from the composer. In "Somewhere in Mexico: Original The A-Team Theme" it's hinted for the first time (alongside a brief (several notes long) classic main theme statement). Yet you'll have to hold your breath if you expect the classic main theme to make an appearance throughout the score, because the one and only time it appears in full is in the final minutes of "I Love it When a Plan Comes Together / Original The A-Team Theme" (aka the last track of the score).
Between the first and the last track, you'll receive standard Silvestri music that at first sounds remarkably G.I. Joe like in sound and style. The problem is that I liked it more inside G.I. Joe itself, and that at least G.I. Joe didn't start to bore after a while. Once again I have the feeling that soundtracks like these begin to deliver their material too long for their own good. Throw away about 20 minutes and people will not shed a tear for its loss of music. No sir, it is time producers begin to realize what is good music and what is filler music that hearts the actual listening experience.
Because during the first part of The A-Team I haven't got a real complaint about its listening experience. Sure the standard Silvestri sound might tamper the expectations a bit, but at least it remains fun to hear. In "Saving Face" the G.I. Joe sound is all over the place, delivering us the new main theme on a rhythmic pleasing pattern, followed by a brief but delightful heroic encore. This encore that is usually tied to the main theme will make multiple appearances throughout the score, including in "Alpha Mike Foxtrot", "Flying a Tank" and "The Docks Part 1".
The main theme itself makes even more appearances throughout the music, serving as Silvestri's own A-Team theme at it guides our heroes throughout all their explosive adventures. That occasionally these adventures are put to a halt due to ethnic underscore moments isn't the problem of the album (at least not in the first part of the score). No the real problem lies in the continuation of the typical style, placed alongside a much sinister combination of cues in the second part of the album ("Frankfurt", "Safehouse", "Safehouse Aftermath" and "The Docks Part 2"). The track "Retrieving the Plates" even includes a wash of sound effects that don't mesh well at all with the noticeable score.
Alan Silvestri keeps his action music exciting though through the fast paced rhythm and the occasional heroic send off, and even then a typical "Flying a Tank" cue can become a most fun experience whilst listening to it. The real pride of the score remains the classic main theme though, and its faithful cool as ever sounding version makes us forget everything when it finishes the experience in "I Love it When a Plan Comes Together / Original The A-Team Theme".
However we have to be blunt and honest, one main theme statement doesn't make our day, and one standard sound doesn't make us forget Alan Silvestri is capable of so much more. That it's discovered in another displeasing release makes me wonder if we really have to sit through everything each and every time as of now. Back in the day, only albums that warranted diversity and potential deserved a long and fruitful release. Now even repetitive music needs to churn out every second of a disc's running time, this for whatever reason. Considering G.I Joe: The Movie was so attacked for its standard sound, I wonder why The A-Team didn't suffer the same fate! After all, this is nothing like Van Helsing, a score that at least had a plan. Take it from me, if they would have thrown away 20 minutes of its boring second part, The A-Team would have humorously killed you fools, even without its classic main theme at the end.
Tracklisting
1. Somewhere in Mexico: Original The A-Team Theme (2.13)
2. Saving Face (3.33)
3. Alpha Mike Foxtrot (4.30)
4. Welcome to Baghdad (4.24)
5. The Plan (6.11)
6. Court Martial (3.10)
7. Putting the Team Back Together (3.39)
8. Flying a Tank (6.11) Excellent track
9. Frankfurt (4.12)
10. Retrieving the Plates (4.10)
11. Safehouse (3.50)
12. Safehouse Aftermath (4.57)
13. Shell Game (2.47)
14. The Docks Part 1 (7.36)
15. The Docks Part 2 (5.48)
16. I Love it When a Plan Comes Together / Original The A-Team Theme (5.27)
Total Length: 72.28
For the people that stood by the A-Team every week, these words are a fond and happy memory to a nostalgic time of action, comedy, babes and let's not forget guys flying over the cameras like it was a weekly routine. All this typical entertainment meant something for the fans that continuously kept watching The A-team as it boosted critical response during the first 2 seasons. After that things slowed down, but real fans never forgot the easy likeable charm the cast gave the viewers each and every time. It was then also for many a wonderful surprise to discover that somebody, somehow would make a movie version out of it.
The A-Team: The Movie stars terrific look a like characters Liam Neeson (John "Hannibal" Smith), Bradley Cooper (Templeton "Faceman" Peck), Quinton Jackson (B.A. Baracus) and District 9 star Shartlto Copley (H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock), whilst delivering us a fun if unfaithful representation to the original series. Music wise only one thing was on the mind of all the fans of the show: would the main theme (one of the most known tunes in the entire world) appear throughout the movie itself? The answer would be, not like we would have liked it.
Composer Alan Silvestri, usually a safe bet for these kinds of motion pictures returns after a fun if overtly standard score for G.I. Joe: The Movie. And it is safe to state that Alan Silvestri doesn't change a lot from his last action score. The tempo, the sound, the ideas at times share remarkable similarities with the previous summer blockbuster score. In the end this isn't such a bad thing, but we demand a lot more from Silvestri, and we also demand that soundtrack producers need to realize that a soundtrack doesn't need to listen 70 minutes long each time to warrant a good release.
Opening The A-Team, we discover that the classic main theme (composed by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter) will not appear the way we would have liked it. No, the attention is drawn more to Silvestri's own new main theme, which is a fun if again typical tune from the composer. In "Somewhere in Mexico: Original The A-Team Theme" it's hinted for the first time (alongside a brief (several notes long) classic main theme statement). Yet you'll have to hold your breath if you expect the classic main theme to make an appearance throughout the score, because the one and only time it appears in full is in the final minutes of "I Love it When a Plan Comes Together / Original The A-Team Theme" (aka the last track of the score).
Between the first and the last track, you'll receive standard Silvestri music that at first sounds remarkably G.I. Joe like in sound and style. The problem is that I liked it more inside G.I. Joe itself, and that at least G.I. Joe didn't start to bore after a while. Once again I have the feeling that soundtracks like these begin to deliver their material too long for their own good. Throw away about 20 minutes and people will not shed a tear for its loss of music. No sir, it is time producers begin to realize what is good music and what is filler music that hearts the actual listening experience.
Because during the first part of The A-Team I haven't got a real complaint about its listening experience. Sure the standard Silvestri sound might tamper the expectations a bit, but at least it remains fun to hear. In "Saving Face" the G.I. Joe sound is all over the place, delivering us the new main theme on a rhythmic pleasing pattern, followed by a brief but delightful heroic encore. This encore that is usually tied to the main theme will make multiple appearances throughout the score, including in "Alpha Mike Foxtrot", "Flying a Tank" and "The Docks Part 1".
The main theme itself makes even more appearances throughout the music, serving as Silvestri's own A-Team theme at it guides our heroes throughout all their explosive adventures. That occasionally these adventures are put to a halt due to ethnic underscore moments isn't the problem of the album (at least not in the first part of the score). No the real problem lies in the continuation of the typical style, placed alongside a much sinister combination of cues in the second part of the album ("Frankfurt", "Safehouse", "Safehouse Aftermath" and "The Docks Part 2"). The track "Retrieving the Plates" even includes a wash of sound effects that don't mesh well at all with the noticeable score.
Alan Silvestri keeps his action music exciting though through the fast paced rhythm and the occasional heroic send off, and even then a typical "Flying a Tank" cue can become a most fun experience whilst listening to it. The real pride of the score remains the classic main theme though, and its faithful cool as ever sounding version makes us forget everything when it finishes the experience in "I Love it When a Plan Comes Together / Original The A-Team Theme".
However we have to be blunt and honest, one main theme statement doesn't make our day, and one standard sound doesn't make us forget Alan Silvestri is capable of so much more. That it's discovered in another displeasing release makes me wonder if we really have to sit through everything each and every time as of now. Back in the day, only albums that warranted diversity and potential deserved a long and fruitful release. Now even repetitive music needs to churn out every second of a disc's running time, this for whatever reason. Considering G.I Joe: The Movie was so attacked for its standard sound, I wonder why The A-Team didn't suffer the same fate! After all, this is nothing like Van Helsing, a score that at least had a plan. Take it from me, if they would have thrown away 20 minutes of its boring second part, The A-Team would have humorously killed you fools, even without its classic main theme at the end.
Tracklisting
1. Somewhere in Mexico: Original The A-Team Theme (2.13)
2. Saving Face (3.33)
3. Alpha Mike Foxtrot (4.30)
4. Welcome to Baghdad (4.24)
5. The Plan (6.11)
6. Court Martial (3.10)
7. Putting the Team Back Together (3.39)
8. Flying a Tank (6.11) Excellent track
9. Frankfurt (4.12)
10. Retrieving the Plates (4.10)
11. Safehouse (3.50)
12. Safehouse Aftermath (4.57)
13. Shell Game (2.47)
14. The Docks Part 1 (7.36)
15. The Docks Part 2 (5.48)
16. I Love it When a Plan Comes Together / Original The A-Team Theme (5.27)
Total Length: 72.28