rated r starring claire danes , omar epps , giovanni ribisi , dennis farina , josh brolin , steve harris , michael lerner , richard jenkins written by stephen t . kay , scott silver , and kate lanier directed by scott silver about five minutes into scott silver's awful the mod squad , i had already made up my mind to leave the theater . but just as i was getting out of my chair , a feeling hit me . maybe by the end of this review , i'll know what that feeling was . now i know that in most of my reviews i reserve the second paragraph to describe the plot , but i looked hard at the mod squad and couldn't find one . those of you who watched the 60's tv series on which this film is based know that the " mod squad " is a group of three young criminals ( claire danes , omar epps , giovanni ribisi ) who are sent out to become undercover cops . in this two hour long episode ( hmm , maybe the show wasn't this bad ) they are sent out by their boss ( dennis farina ) to execute some kind of drug bust . the funny thing is that there is not one engaging plot twist to be found at all . for some reason though , when i decided not to walk out , i became oddly drawn towards the screen . in no way was i engrossed in the experience , but there was something subtle in the film that begged me to like it even the slightest bit . i mean , the film at least lookd great , thanks to some great cinematography by ellen kuras and three very fresh-looking young faces . each one of these actors has shown incredible potential in their prior film outings . get danes , epps , and ribisi together in a film with a decent script and i'll be first in line to see it . and somebody please give giovanni ribisi a good role ! how come the brat pack from suburbia ( steve zahn , giovanni ribisi , parker posey , ajay naidu ) is all of a sudden selling out . suburbia's one of my favorite movies for g-d's sake ! as you can tell by now , i have gone off topic in this very personal review of the mod squad , but i have finally figured out what made me sit through it . i ended up feeling sorry not for any character in the film , but for the entire production itself . review by akiva gottlieb , the teenage movie critic akiva@excite . com http : //www . angelfire . com/mo/film watch me on tbs' " dinner and a movie may 21 , 8 : 05pm est get your free , private email at http : //mail . excite . com/ 
