Mod Squad

If the writers of a movie don't care about the characters inhabiting the world they create, nor the actors portraying them, or the director ostensibly creating a dynamic, well it doesn't seem realistic the audience will care either.

To call this movie slapdash is an undeserved compliment--it's likely they figured it was a lost cause and that no amount of work would improve it. That's probably true.

Omar Epps isn't a very good actor to begin with, but here he's even worse than usual, mumbling his lines without a clue as to what is going on in the movie. Giovanni Rabisi seems to have fun with his role, but playing one imbecile after another, one gets the feeling he may not be so much acting as giving a glimmer as to his real personality. Claire Danes obviously can act, as she showed in "Little Women", but here she's dreadful. Dennis Farina is good in just about anything, but here he's given absolutely no help by the director or the other actors.

The movie quickly devolves into a series of music videos with bad seventies music intermixed with more modern stuff. And this squad is not very mod--the opening sequence notes that mod means fashionably dressed, and these guys look like they've been shopping by picking up things strewn on the side of an interstate. Go elsewhere for entertainment.

The DVD sleeve explains the premise: "Three problem teens are headed for jail," and are "set to do time until Captain Greer offers them a deal to work for him - undercover." The film opens with definitions of the words "Mod" and "Squad", so you won't have to look them up in the dictionary. For a visual definition of "Cool", search for photographs of the original threesome: Michael Cole (as Pete Cochran), Clarence Williams III (as Linc Hayes), and Peggy Lipton (as Julie Barnes).

One black. One white. One blonde. Once they defined cool.

The three who make up Scott Silver's version of Aaron Spelling's "The Mod Squad" are twentysomethings: Claire Danes (as Julie Barnes), Giovanni Ribisi (as Pete Cochran), and Omar Epps (as Linc Hayes). They aren't able to do much with the material given. Mr. Ribisi's portrayal is the most "far out", meaning he digresses most from the original characterization. Ms. Danes romances Josh Brolin (as Billy Waites), who looks like he could be in a re-make of "Marcus Welby, MD". You won't believe hefty Michael Lerner dancing with Mr. Epps' "Linc". He explains, "I'm not a fairy, I just like to dance!" and requests, "Spin me!"

*** The Mod Squad (1999) Scott Silver ~ Claire Danes, Giovanni Ribisi, Omar Epps

I was extremely disappointed with Mod Squad as a movie. There were a number of points which were never explored fully in respect to the character development. The script jumped from point to point without ever clearly explaining the real direction of the plot or the characters. Neither I nor the three people with me ranging from 18 to 85, could work out why the three young 'Mod Squad' members were recruited. We had no idea what they'd done to land themselves in hot water to begin with so they could have been murderers (no sympathy there). The action was minimal the highlight being an old car crashing through a metal door. "When was that film set?" my eighteen year old daughter asked me. The clever young actor from the "Other Sister" relied on the most basic of performance tricks such as shouting, to even be noticed. Long lingering shots of the female lead became dull. The young black actor had little to work on in his scripted characterisation. I found myself confused between the good and the bad cops and why a call to the police precinct, which had set up the criminal "bust" finale , was so obligingly received and acted on so promptly. The police were called to the scene as backup for our hero who was then an escaped felon (or was he????). The direction in my opinion was experimental to the point of distraction. One scene had our three protagonists in the front seat of a car plotting their next move. This was the bench mark. We saw the camera pan left, right, right, left, right, left then left again so continuously I became dizzy. The recording quality of the hand held reporters cassette recorder, the contents of which wrapped up the entire Mod Squad case was "studio quality" amazing!!! I see a minimum of sixty films a year. This was one of the least effective in a decade. my vote is 2 out of 10.

60s and 70s television show remakes are everywhere. "Charlie's Angels" and "Starsky and Hutch" are just two of the more profitable franchises (the latter of the two bringing in $28 million in its first week). But both of those series tend to have fun with what they're parodying, rather than remaking. "The Mod Squad" is basically just a remake of the show of the same title, minus any real sort of substance and humor, and only a low amount of actual fun. It could have been a blast, but it's just rather mediocre.

Three young delinquents (Claire Danes, Giovanni Ribisi and Omar Epps) are recruited by a cop (Dennis Farina) to infiltrate many various operations (prostitute rings, drug circles) that police could never get into. But after their boss is murdered and they uncover a conspiracy, the three delinquents take it upon themselves to find out the truth behind the crime.

2.5/5 stars.

• John Ulmer

The plot is pretty weak, even for a 60s TV show remake. "The Mod Squad" ran from 1968 - 1973, with somewhere in the vicinity of 120 episodes. I never saw any, but I can't imagine this film adaptation does the show much justice.

The cast is considerably OK. Danes is quite enthusiastic and pretty enough for her sweet-blonde role, Ribisi is fine as a criminal and Epps is decent enough, too. Farina ("Get Shorty," "Another Stakeout") is a good actor, always very funny, but here his role is completely wasted (literally!) and short on the sort of sly humor that would have been appropriate given the actor behind it.

The dialogue is really corny, and so are the characters' actions. Television shows need not worry about smart dialogue or characters, because they're usually 30 minutes long (sometimes an hour), and we just get "hooked" on what's going on. Can you imagine if a soap opera made its way onto the big screen? It'd completely flop. People watch television shows because they like to see continuous stories with recurring characters they learn to love over a certain time period.

You can't get any joy out of watching a bunch of actors try to grow on you for 90 minutes. If "Alias" had ever started out as a big-screen movie, it might have flopped, because let's face it: the show is not exactly quality material. People watch it because they get hooked on it, and they enjoy watching the stories and the revelations, like an old woman addicted to her "General Hospital" episodes.

So here's proof that if "The Mod Squad" had originally been a movie, there probably would have been no television show. Despite some rather bad word-of-mouth, this movie isn't a terrible one. I've seen much worse, and compared to big-screen disasters like "Freddy Got Fingered," or low-budget ones like "The Blade Master," this is nothing very laughable at all.

But compared to the fun factor of "Charlie's Angels" or "Starsky and Hutch," "The Mod Squad" falls flat on its face. It's not very funny, it's not very fun, and it's not very original. It's a cash-in, which is something Hollywood is not in short supply of right now. If you miss "The Mod Squad," you're not missing anything that hasn't been done before.

Three young petty delinquents Julie (Claire Danes), Pete (Giovanni Ribisi), and Linc (Omar Epps) are recruited by detective Greer (Dennis Farina) to work undercover where cops can't normally go. They are sent in to a club to investigate. When they find Greer murdered, they set off to find his murderer even though they are ostracized by most of the police. Meanwhile Billy (Josh Brolin) from the club is interested in Julie.

The lighting is way too dark for most of the movie. I understand the underground sensibility of their investigation. However it makes it hard to watch. Ribisi is good playing the jokey jittery guy. Epps is way too stiff of an actor. Danes is probably miscast here. I've never seen the TV show, and the movie is probably trying to copy Peggy Lipton. It seems better if they go more white trash for the role like a Juliette Lewis kind. Dane is way too nice and sweet. I don't know what the original TV show is like. So it's hard for me to compare and judge the movie. There is some good music but by itself, the movie is kind of boring.