Gli infiltrati

For being categorized in the genre of "Action/Thriller", there wasn't a great deal of action nor was there anything particularly thrilling about this film.

I went into it with no expectations save for being entertained. As it was, I kept pushing the "Display" on my DVD player to see how much longer I had to endure this.

Claire Danes, Giovanni Ribisi and Omar Epps are extremely watchable and gifted actors. "The Mod Squad" offers them nothing to work with. On a story level, their origins are glossed over, the rocky relationship with their Captain (though stereotypical of so many Hollywood films) isn't even close to being fleshed out even a little and we (as the audience) have no reason to believe they even care why they're trying to solve the mystery presented in the film. I certainly didn't care and just kept watching to see how Ribisi would further destroy Epps' car in the little bit of comic relief someone thought to write in.

The technical aspects of the film are a disaster. The editing is simply poor and the action sequences appear to have been directed after a very heavy lunch when the crew would have better spent their time taking a nap.

This film could have been about angst and action, should have been better planned out and directed by someone who had a notion of how to handle the material, but alas it just wasn't.

Don't waste your time.

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.

This has to be one of the worst movies I have ever seen. With very little plot, poor acting (some exceptions), and terrible lighting, we are subjected to an extremely bad imitation of the old television series. No explanation, other than a few headlines, gives us any idea how or why these dolts were elected to be the new mod squad. Claire Danes is okay, as is Omar Epps. Giovanni Ribisi, however, doesn't know (or was not directed to know) if his character is a buffoon or a seriously troubled young man. The long pauses and takes on faces failed to engage me--they were merely irritating. This movie sometimes appeared to be a parody; at other times it took itself too seriously. Some bad lighting caused Claire Danes to have a flickering nose in one scene. The ending was ludicrous. Don't waste your money.

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.

This movie was a gargantuan disappointment on nearly all levels. Based on the late-60s/early-70s TV show, the movie could have been a hip, funny update OR a straight, reverent recreation from the period which it came from. Alas, the filmmakers botched it with a dull, hackneyed "dirty cops on the inside" plot we've seen countless times before. The direction is stiff and Character development is sorely lacking, making it impossible for us to grow any attachment to them. And for what's supposed to be an action film, there's a definite lack of energy and visual pizzazz.

Claire Danes and Omar Epps are fine (if a bit too low-key) in their roles, but Giovanni Ribisi gives one of the most highly annoying performances in recent memory. He plays his character (Pete Cochran) like some doped-up, marble-mouthed clod. Even if everything else in the film were fine, his performance here would still be a serious detriment.

What could have been a classy, fun film is rendered an unfortunate misfire. OH, what Quentin Tarantino could have done with this material!!