The Mod Squad | | Cast : | Claire Danes, Giovanni Ribisi, Omar Epps | | Director : | Scott Silver | | Studio : | Mgm/Ua Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | March 26, 1999 | | DVD Released Date : | November 02, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | June 20, 2005 | | Summary | MOD SQUAD | Content
 | does anybody know when the SERIES itself will be available on DVD? i'm used to being able to "search" in the block provided by putting the name of the tv show and the word "DVD" and if it's not currently available on DVD, i'm given the chance to put my name on the "to be alerted" list. but not this time. i don't know why the "MOVIE" was the only thing to come up. please somebody let me and the rest of us fans know. i don't want the VHS versions. aside from costing too much for what looks like probably not a whole season, i want a whole season on DVD. |
| Rating | | | Date | December 29, 2004 | | Summary | Plot?What Plot? | Content
| "As fun as it is cool!" said MTV News, at least according to the cover blurb here, which immediately begs the question as to whether they were actually talking about this film, and whether they were actually sober if they had watched this film. To save you a lot of time, let me assure you that I may have found a film that will knock Plan 9 From Outer Space off the perch as the worst film of all time. Okay, perhaps that is exaggerating just a little, but there is certainly not much here to commend this putrid effort as a film at all. Perhaps I am a traditionalist, but I believe films need to have certain elements to them in order to be successful: a good story is a great place to start, and that is precisely where this effort starts to seriously go downhill! There is no really discernible story here, and everything else just gets worse from there. Apparently based upon the late 1960s and early 1970s television series, it certainly exhibits no improvement over that series and in general demonstrates how much worse the series could well have been.
If you need to really have a plot here, then I suppose it is loosely the tale of three troubled youths who face the prospect of jail time for various little crimes until given the chance by Captain Greer (Dennis Farina) to work undercover, doing tasks the normal police officer cannot do. What follows is a bunch of scenes featuring Julie Barnes (Claire Danes), Pete Cochrane (Giovanni Ribisi) and Lincoln Hayes (Omar Epps) doing their undercover stuff, trying to track down the bad guys with the drugs. Along the way, a few people die and amongst them are the audience who have to watch the film.
Plot? Well, there really is nothing discernible here that would qualify as a plot. The whole film really is a bunch of disjointed little pieces that have been extracted from any number of sources you care to name that have been linked together in a such a way that is designed to provide the utmost confusion to the viewer. Characters? Yes, well, what characters? There is so little character development here that they were probably all premature births for all we know from the film. Dialogue? Oh lordy, this plumbs new depths of inanity that have never been seen before. The absolute depth? Pete griping "why does she always get to be the prostitute?". Somebody please pass me the bucket, I need to throw up! Acting? Pass. Production values? Pass. Cinematography? Pass. There is simply nothing here that is remotely worthwhile seeing and it ends up being an excruciatingly long 90 minutes of viewing.
The only thing that saves this film at all is the presence of Claire Danes, and had they have simply had ninety minutes of her on screen, and dumped the appalling Giovanni Ribisi, things would have been significantly better in my view. However, if you are not a Claire Danes fan, then this is probably to be avoided at all costs.
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| Rating | | | Date | June 14, 2004 | | Summary | Pretty Good if You're Bound and Gagged for Two Hours | Content
| Mod Squad is nothing to watch on purpose mind you. It's one of those bad films that requires no thinking at all to get through. That's probably why you could be watching it for over an hour and not even realize what anyone in the scenes are doing. This is the worst ripoff of a television series I have ever seen. The characters didn't act anything like the originals. Omar Epps rocked and as a black person I was embarrassed he even took a part in the mess. He is too good of an actor to even think of taking a role where he had so little to do. Ribisi was unnoticable as the " dumb " one of the group. His lines were supposed to be funny but he only ended up making me more bored. Claire Danes was stylish for once but she tried too hard to be sexy and once again her acting barely passed. With many more exciting young actresses out there I was surprised that someone thought Claire Danes who played Julie like a ditzy tramp could be smart enough to be a cop. This is the movie that proved Danes is not leading lady material. She does much better as a supporting actress. This was awful and unless you've got the hots for any of these three people don't waste your time. Poor Omar, thank goodness he went on to better roles. If you like new adaptations of old shows, I'd watch the new Charlie's Angels movies. They may not be perfect but at least they aren't boring. |
| Rating | | | Date | December 27, 2003 | | Summary | Embarrasing. | Content
| For those who don't know, the premise of the TV show was that these three troubled kids had some attitude but were actually decent, sympathetic characters. And they had as their "father figure", Captain Greer. Just copy that formula, with Clarie Danes--who IS cute--and bingo, instant hit. But no. First we kill off the guy who's supposed to watch over them. Next, we make them unsympathetic slackers. Finally, add a dash of silly, dated dialog like "Solid, man". (Which sounded ridiculous, even in the 60s, trust me). I don't know who Giovanni is but he should get some sleep and try breathing through his nose so he can close his mouth occasionally. Even when he isn't talking his mouth is open. Didn't they give any thought to the lack of chemistry between these actors--and how unappealing they are in these roles? I'd send them back to prison. |
| Rating | | | Date | October 26, 2003 | | Summary | more like 2 in a half | Content
| this movie has 3 good leads in the roles of Julie, Pete and Linc. but theres some funkyness and stupidity in some of this one, especially in Michael Lerner's Howard character, the man who dances with Omar Epps. Giovanni Ribisi is the stand out here as Pete, hes crazy and likable. my favorite scenes with him are teh scene with the carwash and the ones where he has the gun, hes so great with the gun, Claire Danes looks delicious in her black undies and Epps is buffer then ever. a good view and I having seen the tv show its based on though I hear its kinda good and corny. |
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