C. Sean Currie (hypestyle) "The Mod Squad" is a motion picture update of the original TV series which originally aired in the late 60s/early 70s.The original "Mod Squad" featured a trio of college aged friends circa 1970 who had unofficial detective status with the local Los Angeles police force and worked to solve crimes that were taking place among people their age. The story lines frequently dealt with then-timely topics of the counter culture, feminism, civil rights, racism, the war in Vietnam, the (Baby Boomer era) generation gap, and more. Without actually being cops, this was a precursor of sorts to the 1980s-era 21 Jump Street.This film takes the basic, general concept of the Mod Squad, but doesn't execute the story very well. The lead characters (played by Omar Epps, Giovanni Ribisi, Claire Daines) all come across as sullen twits who have had previous scrapes with the law as teens, but somehow have come under the mentorship of a police Captain (played by a wasted Dennis Farina.) **Major Spoilers** the death of the Captain early on in the story prompts a revenge investigation by the Squad, but his death puts a cap on finding out just why this guy was so committed to mentoring these delinquents instead of just allowing the book to be thrown at them, years ago.The main plot has the team investigating a drug ring that heavily uses young adults as mules/dealers. Of course, the main boss is anything but someone their age, hence the "don't trust anyone over 25" attitude among the trio.Julie (Danes) has a cheating boyfriend, and in one sequence she sets his car and clothes on fire in revenge. This comes only a few years removed from a similar tactic seen in "Waiting to Exhale", so there's a bit of anticlimactic context to it.The villain is a generic mobster, and a sequence where he wants to dance with one of the male Squad guys is played straight, but comes across as an awkward gay-panic joke.The theater audience I saw this with got more of a hoot out of Eddie Griffin's cameo than they did out of Omar Epps' entire performance.About the only role I envied in this film was Claire Danes' pants.

wes-connors The DVD sleeve explains the premise: "Three problem teens are headed for jail," and are "set to do time until Captain Greer offers them a deal to work for him - undercover." The film opens with definitions of the words "Mod" and "Squad", so you won't have to look them up in the dictionary. For a visual definition of "Cool", search for photographs of the original threesome: Michael Cole (as Pete Cochran), Clarence Williams III (as Linc Hayes), and Peggy Lipton (as Julie Barnes). One black. One white. One blonde. Once they defined cool.The three who make up Scott Silver's version of Aaron Spelling's "The Mod Squad" are twentysomethings: Claire Danes (as Julie Barnes), Giovanni Ribisi (as Pete Cochran), and Omar Epps (as Linc Hayes). They aren't able to do much with the material given. Mr. Ribisi's portrayal is the most "far out", meaning he digresses most from the original characterization. Ms. Danes romances Josh Brolin (as Billy Waites), who looks like he could be in a re-make of "Marcus Welby, MD". You won't believe hefty Michael Lerner dancing with Mr. Epps' "Linc". He explains, "I'm not a fairy, I just like to dance!" and requests, "Spin me!" *** The Mod Squad (1999) Scott Silver ~ Claire Danes, Giovanni Ribisi, Omar Epps

pecosshafer The movie was slow, the dialogue between actors/actresses felt "flat" and basically there was no development of the characters in the story.Omar Epps skulks around with a mad look on his face the entire time, pouting and basically looking annoyed with everybody. Danes has no on-screen magic, and Ribisi's character is a goober that nobody would want to hang out with even if they were paid to do so.Throw in the weird scene where Epps has to dance with an old man, and you have what quite possibly COULD BE the worst movie in cinema history.I watched it on satellite (thank goodness I didn't pay for it), and wished I hadn't.Do yourself a favor and go sort your underwear and socks drawer if you need something to do but are tempted to watch this movie when/if it comes on your TV. Awful movie if you ask me, and I generally have something good to say about just about any movie out there.

ScottG123 This may just be the worst movie of all time. Never have I seen such horrible film making before in my life. Its so bad I think I want to go watch Barney instead. I advise everyone who reads this to write a petition to get this movie off of our film history so we can never hear from it again. I give it 1 out of 10.