As always on test screenings, know that this may not be anywhere near the final product. In fact it's still quite a ways from coming out, so there is quite a bit of room for change. Saying that, the review below has a few SPOILERS and is a bit mixed. Liked the actors and direction, hated the pacing and the story. But this is just one person's feelings, you may hate the actors and direction and love the pacing and direction. Different films for different tastes my friends.... I'd love more feedback on this flick though.
Last Monday I attended a screening of The Mod Squad at MGM in Santa Monica, CA. The theather fit about 100 people, and they were almost all UCLA students.
The film.
Hip actors. Hip music. Hip clothes. Nothing special. The story centers around three young street kids(Claire Danes, Omar Epps and Giovanni Ribisi) who are called on by police to, "go places we can't." Undercover cops, but without weapons. When their boss (Dennis Farina) turns up dead, they are forced to go on the run and find out who did it. I had absoletly no problem with the acting, everyone was good. Ribisi gets all the funny lines, and is the stand-out. The directing was decent. It was done by Scott Silver, who did a film called Johns with Lucas Haas and David Arquette (I didn't see it). The pacing sucked ass. The story was boring, lacking action and wit. There is nothing groundbreaking or remotely interesting about the plot. How many times can they do the same 'corrupt cops steal cocaine from evidence and try to sell it' plot line? If you are going to do it, make it interesting.
The film I saw was not finshed, there were dissolve lines and a temp track that consisted of instrumental Beastie Boys, Lauren Hill, Everlast and some stuff from Transpotting. I could see them doing some reshoots, fix the pacing and come out with a decent film. As it is the movie was entertaining, but it was nothing to recommend.
