The Mod Squad

 

The Mod Squad 1999

• Director: Scott Silver
• Seen by this director: Sweet and Lowdown, clips from many others
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Claire Danes, Giovanni Ribisi, Omar Epps, Dennis Farina, Josh Brolin, Richard Jenkins
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Claire Danes – Stardust, Terminator 3, The Hours, Igby Goes Down, Les Misérables, Romeo & Julia, Gillian on her 37th Birthday, Little Women
• Giovanni Ribisi – Selma, The Rum Diary, Public Enemies, The Dead Girl, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Cold Mountain, Friends, Lost in Translation, Saving Private Ryan, SubUrbia, The X Files
• Omar Epps – Alfie
• Dennis Farina – Saving Private Ryan, Get Shorty
• Josh Brolin – Dune, Hail Caesar, Everest, True Grit, Milk, No Country for Old Men, The Dead Girl
• Richard Jenkins – The Shape of Water, Kong Skull Island, God’s Pocket, The Rum Diary, Burn After Reading, The Broken, The Visitor, Rumour Has It, North Country, Six Feet Under
• Why? The old TV series. 
• Seen: 30 April 2023      

       It’s probably a mistake to watch a film version of an old teen favourite but who knows? It might be good. 

Here modern teens, white junkie Julie Barnes (Danes), white robber Pete Cochrane (Ribisi), angry young black man Lincoln Hayes (Epps), all three heading for big trouble, are offered a chance to work undercover for the cops. Not all the real cops like the project. 

It was a good idea in the 60s. Can it translate into 1999, which already makes it old? 

Nope. The story is boring, the dialog is dreadful, the action is trite. And as good as these three actors are in other things, nobody can replace Peggy Lipton, Michael Cole and Clarence Williams III. 

Or maybe I’m just not sixteen anymore. 

But you know what? I like Ribisi. His deadpan dopiness saves the whole thing. Sort of.  

2 ½ * of 5