If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

"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.

Well, i don't consider myself a film critic, but gee...i think i can distinguish a bad film from a good one...The only reason I began to watch it was because of the actors plus was midnight and was one of the few films been showed that night on TV...Anyway, I gave it a try thinking that i will start developing and become sort of interesting, but no, just kept going on one level, didn't build up at all and the "interesting" scenes, weren't that interesting at all...like the actors were uninspired or something with such a dull plot.Believe me I never rate films so low, but gee... i really felt that was a waste of time, got less hours of my sacred sleeping time...It's a pity, I believe these actors have a lot of potential to waste it in such films...

I must preface this comment with a sort of admission: I suppose I just have a soft spot for the original 60s-70s TV series. I think the filmmakers here blew it from the get-go as far as casting: in a supposed remake, audiences would look for reflections of the hip, athletic Linc (Clarence Williams III), or the cool, with-it Michael Cole, and so forth. Instead, we get Giovanni Ribisi as a poor-little-white rich boy who comes off as just pathetic, like he is in all his roles (in the office I used to work in, I amused myself once by creating a fake movie poster, casting various actors as members of the office staff; guess who I cast as the dorky son of the company President?). Danes does OK as the new Julie, but none of the characters have much to do, as the story just sort of sits there, mired in conventionality. So it's quite forgettable, besides. What was I talking about?

Now, the only reason I did watch this movie was Giovanni Ribisi(as Pete Cochran). As I watched, I soon realized he was the only reason to watch this. Maybe I'm exaggerating, though. Claire Danes(as Julie) truly shocked me with her performance because it was so dull. So so so dull. Omar Epps(as Lincoln Hayes) acted well enough for me to like the way Ribisi's character and his seemed to help each other out. After the first time I watched it, I couldn't get enough. Maybe I was dreaming of the action-filled nights these officers might have without me. Maybe I wanted to laugh once more at lines that just didn't flow or Ribisi dancing on a car. Maybe I wanted to stick out my tongue at Danes as she rode an emotional roller coaster. I watched it several times just so I could absorb the unexpected charm it does have. You just have to look in the right places. Then you can truly appreciate this movie.