# Mod Squad, The (1999)

### reviewed by
Jamie Peck

    THE MOD SQUAD
    Reviewed by Jamie Peck

Rating: * (out of ****) MGM / 1:33 / 1999 / R (language, violence, fleeting nudity, drug use) Cast: Claire Danes; Giovanni Ribisi; Omar Epps; Josh Brolin; Dennis Farina; Richard Jenkins; Steve Harris; Michael Lerner Director: Scott Silver Screenplay: Stephen T. Kay; Scott Silver; Kate Lanier

There have been Merchant-Ivory costume dramas with more of a pulse than "The Mod Squad," a self-consciously "hip" cinematic rendering of the old TV series still looked upon fondly by so many baby-boomers. Well, said "Squad" certainly won't be a pleasant viewing experience for them or anybody else, maybe even the teen target audience the movie has been geared towards. A contemporary take on this decidedly '70s show doesn't exactly seem unwarranted, but one wonders if the mold it accumulated while waiting on the shelf didn't transform into a full-blown case of botulism.

How curious that the film begins by defining both mod and squad, insisting that the latter is a group of people working together and then contradicting this definition by keeping its titular trio apart for a sizeable chunk of the running time. They are Julie, Pete and Linc, reformed delinquents working undercover for the LAPD (exposition put out of the way so fast that you're likely to be lost from the opening moments on), and they are respectively played by Claire Danes, Giovanni Ribisi and Omar Epps, talented actors each deserving of better than this.

Their plight involves standard cop-corruption stuff, as our would-be protagonists catch wind of an internal cover-up after their superior (reliable Dennis Farina, one of the best things here and gone so quickly) gets killed and framed for drug trafficking. They pout a lot and eventually get cracking to expose this convoluted conspiracy using surveillance tactics that would impress the Hardy boys and Linda Tripp but few others. When you're supposed to be asking, "What's going to happen next?", you'll instead entertain thoughts like "Who are these people and why should I care?" or "Aren't thrillers supposed to contain thrills?"

Not that Danes, Epps and Ribisi don't give it a shot. Danes can do the troubled teen thing in her sleep, as evidenced by "My So-Called Life," but she's saddled with a mysterious-boyfriend (Josh Brolin) subplot so see-through you begin to seriously question her so-called intelligence. Ditto for Ribisi's ("Saving Private Ryan") looney loose cannon, though at least he performs with a wild-and-crazy vigor that occasionally demands attention. But Epps - poor Epps. Epps ("Higher Learning") is so short-changed he's reduced to literally waiting around for a bad guy to chase him.

All this sloppiness can be attributed to the screenwriters, one of whom, Scott Silver, is also the director. They must think that if they dress up their stupid story in such spiffy trappings (the look of the film is really quite impressive), it'll somehow pay off, but this "Mod Squad" plods anyway. Characters are non-existent; present are just some good-looking young things modeling cool Levis and cooler attitudes. Plot hardly escapes confusing convention. And the one genre element you'd think would be show up in generous portions - a few nifty explosions, some fights, any kind of action whatsoever - only rarely makes it to this dull gabfest.

All those quick to put down last month's inept but serviceable "My Favorite Martian" update need to take a step back. Here's a small-to-big-screen translation that really should've stayed in its former incarnation, "Mod" or not.

© 1999 Jamie Peck E-mail: jpeck1@gl.umbc.edu Visit The Reel Deal Online: http://www.gl.umbc.edu/~jpeck1/ "It presents as comedy things that are not amusing. If you think this movie is funny, that tells me things about you I don't want to know." -Roger Ebert on "Very Bad Things"

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