Wow! Who green-lighted this $50 million train wreck of a remake? It's a shocker with the extra sting in that you just can't see where the money went. The Mod Squad simply looks and plays out like an updated, extended episode of the original TV series. In other words it looks cheap. There's no other word to better describe it. It's dark, with an overabundance of night scenes, which are badly lit. The only thing that can be said about the script is, it's very predictable, despite the early killing off of squad leader Adam Greer (Dennis Farina phoning it in). BTW this is not a spoiler, as it's cited in all the film's plot outlines.
Eschewing any sort of origin tale, The Mod Squad pretty much opens at the start of a new case, with the 3 members firmly ensconced in, but not widely accepted by, the regular police force. The narrative played out from there is just very ordinary. None of the squad's members have much in the way of back stories of any note, though the storyline sees recovering alcoholic Julie, played by Claire Danes having boy friend troubles with an old ex-flame.
The dialogue is dire. The film was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Screenplay, but lost out to another television show turned movie Wild Wild West (LOL!). There are simply no big action set pieces of any note whatsoever and much of the little humour there is, comes from Giovanni Ribisi's Pete Cochran playing surprise, surprise, deliberately dumb, such as in the car wash scene.
The original series, though never great, had some degree of cultural impact because of the era of rebellious teens during which it featured. It also had a black man in an equal lead role with a couple of whites. Flash forward 30 years and the remade (big budget) movie has all the impact of a bug slamming into the windscreen of a moving truck. Like the poor old insect, The Mod Squad is as dead and lifeless as a doornail.
Eschewing any sort of origin tale, The Mod Squad pretty much opens at the start of a new case, with the 3 members firmly ensconced in, but not widely accepted by, the regular police force. The narrative played out from there is just very ordinary. None of the squad's members have much in the way of back stories of any note, though the storyline sees recovering alcoholic Julie, played by Claire Danes having boy friend troubles with an old ex-flame.
The dialogue is dire. The film was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Screenplay, but lost out to another television show turned movie Wild Wild West (LOL!). There are simply no big action set pieces of any note whatsoever and much of the little humour there is, comes from Giovanni Ribisi's Pete Cochran playing surprise, surprise, deliberately dumb, such as in the car wash scene.
The original series, though never great, had some degree of cultural impact because of the era of rebellious teens during which it featured. It also had a black man in an equal lead role with a couple of whites. Flash forward 30 years and the remade (big budget) movie has all the impact of a bug slamming into the windscreen of a moving truck. Like the poor old insect, The Mod Squad is as dead and lifeless as a doornail.