Despite its modernist trappings - slacker tendencies, smooth hip-hop
soundtrack, off-kilter editing - the film simply cannot shake off its
roots in kitsch television from a bygone era. Not awful enough to be
good, and not bad enough to be genuinely awful, The Mod Squad loiters in
a cinematic no-man's land.
Plot-wise, it takes a simplistic and cliched premise and muddies
everything to such an extent that even though you know what's happening
and have in fact seen it all a zillion times before, you become
confused. The acting is vague, posing as deliberate post-modern irony.
Even a couple of decent gags fall flat, through repetition of the
punchlines at a completely unwanted time.
Nobody, not even the outrageously talented Claire Danes, takes the
leaden script by the scruff of the neck and injects the necessary verve.
She comes closest, since Danes' talent will always pull her through the
lamest of enterprises, but the other two youthful leads appear to be on
some from of sedation throughout the movie. Neither are particularly
irritating or offensive per se, but that's the problem. These kids are
too damn nice to be credible delinquents, too inept to be the wanton
arch criminals the opening sequence tries to convince us they are. It
just doesn't wash.....and if the film is to stand any hope of really
working, it needs to wash.
The violence apes cinema's current fixation with in-your-face brutality,
the language is wilfully (but unconvincingly) free-flowing, yet the
flaccid showdown at the film's climax is more akin to a children's
adventure. The lack of bite these previously unlawful tearaways display,
and the condescending "hey kids! you alright?" attitude of their
superiors come the final reel, puts The Mod Squad firmly in the league
of posturing wannabe.
Appropriately, the actual disc is also merely serviceable without ever
rising above the ordinary. There's simply nothing to really grab the
attention, be it the clarity of the sound effects or the picture
quality. Extras are virtually non-existant - the "exciting booklet
containing insider info", as the packaging calls it, is two pages of
quotes and soudbites from entertainment publications. Cheers.
So, what does that leave us with? A fairly competent, but strangely
unexciting melange of ideas and styles. It seems unsure whether to be
Go! or the 60s version of
Mission: Impossible
ending up as neither and both simultaneously. Future installments were
obviously planned - and swiftly shelved when the public gave this
Mod Squad the cold shoulder.
Maybe it will find a future in the arena from whence the idea came:
Television.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
