Michael Cole (The Original Pete Cochrane) calls the 1999 Mod Squad Movie Awful

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http://www.movieweb.com/news/exclusi...-the-mod-squad

Hey guys,

Check this out:

During a 2007 interview with MovieWeb.com, Michael Cole who played Pete Cochrane in the 60's Version of The Mod Squad slams the Movie Version that came out 15 years ago calling it awful

Here's what he had to say:

So what were your thoughts on the 1999 film remake of The Mod Squad?

Michael Cole: Oh, it was awful. It was awful, and it had some wonderful actors in it.

I would have to agree.

Michael Cole: Oh man, no, it was awful. Peggy and I went to the screening of it, the premiere. Aaron was right behind us, a bunch of guys from ABC and Aaron's company. Peg is sitting there and all of the sudden she says, 'Mick, what the hell is this about?' so everybody could hear. (Laughs) I couldn't answer her. What it took away was, they tried to make it too real, and you can't do that. Giovanni Ribisi is an incredible actor. Omar Epps is wonderful and Claire Danes is wonderful, so it certainly wasn't anything to do with the actors. They tried to do two things. They tried to make it as close as they could get to the original, and they tried to contemporize it. It's two totally different things.

[king of comedy]

It was that bad.

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http://whatculture.com/film/15-awful...o-forget.php/6

11. The Mod Squad (1999) – Claire Danes

RottenTomatoes Score: 4%

The Plot: A contemporary movie adaptation of the classic 60s/70s TV series, in which three young delinquents, Julie Barnes (Claire Danes), Pete Cochran (Giovanni Ribisi) and Lincoln Hayes (Omar Epps), are recruited as undercover agents in order to avoid jail time. When the cop who recruited them, Capt. Adam Greer (Dennis Farina), is murdered, they seek to bring down the drug ring responsible.

Why It Sucks: The film was nominated for a Worst Screenplay Razzie, and with good reason, and it’s pretty easy to understand why Sarah Michelle Gellar, Melissa Joan Hart and Milla Jovovich all turned down the role that Danes accepted. The film as a whole is all over the place: it wants to be a pastiche and a homage to the original show, but it’s also keen to be slick and contemporary, and as a result the messy mix pleases neither fans of the original nor younger viewers looking for something new.

Flatly directed, horribly written and failing to put paid to its iconic characters, the only real pleasure here is Ribisi’s somewhat amusing performance. On the whole, though, a total dud.

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https://bombreport.com/yearly-breakd...the-mod-squad/

MGM dusted off the 1968 TV series The Mod Squad and the struggling studio was actively moving forward with the property in mid 1997. Stacy Title was originally hired to direct, but she left in July ’97 over the usual creative differences, after she wanted to film a more gritty version of The Mod Squad — and MGM wanted the movie to be hip and cool. The Mod Squad turned about to be nobody’s idea of hip or cool. Scott Silver took over directing and screenplay duties and churned out this embarrassment.

MGM fully financed The Mod Squad for $21 million and dated the movie for March 26, 1999. MGM’s 1999 first quarter releases (At First Sight, The Rage: Carrie 2 and The Mod Squad) left a combined $54.3M write-down for the studio.

MGM landed a cross-promotional print and commercial tie-in with Levi’s, which created a line of clothing that the characters wear in The Mod Squad. The expensive promotional stunt helped neither company. It bowed against EDtv and Doug’s First Movie. MGM marketed the R rated movie directly at a teenage audience, which would not be able to buy a ticket and The Mod Squad racked up some of the worst reviews of the year. It pulled in a poor $6,064,716 — placing #4 for the weekend led by the holdover Forces Of Nature. Auds hated the movie, slapping it with a C- cinemascore and it sank 57.6% the following frame to $2,568,784 and then plummeted 68.1% to $818,602 and then promptly lost most of its theater count. The domestic run closed with only $13,263,993. MGM would see returned about $7.2M after theaters take their percentage of the gross, which leaves much of the P&A expenses in the red and the budget untouched by the theatrical receipts.

Overseas numbers were an anemic $2,155,311.

MGM packaged the hit The Man In The Iron Mask with 6 unwanted flops (Hoodlum, Mod Squad, Dirty Work, Disturbing Behavior, The Rage: Carrie 2 and At First Sight) to sell to the USA network and their sister channel Sci-Fi Channel for $22 million.

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https://cinefilestv.blogspot.com/202...1999.html#more

THE MOD SQUAD (1999)

• Directed By: Scott Silver
• Written By: Scott Silver, Stephen Kay and Kate Lanier
• Based on characters created By: Buddy Ruskin
• Cinematography: Ellen Kuras
• Editor: Dorian Harris

Cast: Giovanni Ribisi, Omar Epps, Claire Danes, Josh Brolin, Steve Harris, Richard Jenkins, Dennis Farina, Michael Lerner, Sam McMurray, Bodhi Elfman, Eddie Griffin, Holmes Osbourne, Toby Huss, Monet Mazur, Larry Brandenburg

Three troubled teens sent to jail are offered a deal to work with an undercover cop, uncover an intricate drug ring, and are caught in a deadly set-up. With cops on their trail, they have little time to solve the case and clear their names.

The nicest thing I can say about the movie is that they cast actors rather than stars. Even though they were trying to set up these up-and-coming to-be stars. Which actually gives the film, a little more authenticity, and credit than it probably deserves.

One of the problems with links character played by Omar Epps is that he’s just supposed to be the cool guy yet we rarely see him do anything that’s cool but as soon as he shows up his vibe, is that of the cool guy so you’re making the audience trust in assumption before actually exhibiting any of that type of behavior or action Which never really comes so it feels like a buildup only to be let down. Some might say is the same when it comes to this film though was there really any big demand for this film?

As it came out, remakes and reboots of old television series were kind of still successful, and a fad. Maybe the problem was it needed to tell the original story, but it also comes off as just another episode that could’ve been of the series.

As the villain seems to be a kingpin, but is a local kingpin, which realistically if you are kind of a side project, an undercover team makes sense, but it has all the excitement of taking down a local drug dealer now that really cinematic for an action film not real, even with all the intrigue that this film involves.

I mean the film at least has all the villains as Caucasian, but then again, most of the characters are Caucasian, with a sprinkling of minorities mostly African-Americans. So it makes clear who the audience source is for Home Truly is.

Now, here is where I get more into the problems of the film, which are overpowering. Any good takes the film might have.

The film is kind of set up to fail as the most memorable character is taken away as Link was a cool and dangerous black guy from the show with an Afro here has Omar Epps with a regular haircut not particularly physically, scary, or too big. So that he resembles just a black guy without the Afro it feels like they are kind of castrated or circumcised. He has no iconic look, you know they could’ve at least made them bald (like hawk on SPENCER FOR HIRE) for here. He just comes off as normal and uninteresting.

Giovanni Ribisi is a good actor and his character is supposed to be a screwup, his overarching arc is supposed to finally by the end of the movie make good and become a kind of the facto leader. His loser status is so great that his parents don’t believe him have any faith in him or even really take him seriously. Plus at times he seems a little touched and this is supposed to be our hero of sorts and an ensemble. The closest thing we get to a leader or protagonist.

Claire Danes' character Julie is an addict which makes her the most vulnerable and fragile of the team. Yet she was still hired to be undercover and strong enough for this job. Then her ex-boyfriend happens to be the villain. So she really has the most to lose here though is kind of treated as a damsel in distress rather than an integral part of the team I guess she is supposed to be the bait. Her character was kind of a sexpot here. She just seems to be kind of a basic normal girl who’s in the scene? Maybe it’s better as she doesn’t draw too much attention to herself. This would unfortunately be one of the last times she appeared in a studio film that was more after blockbuster viewers than anything else.

Decided to revitalize the show as was common at times people recognize the name of the show, but at the time, not too many might’ve had memories of it as prime entertainment. On the plus side, you could write it without really copying it down too much but also there isn’t that huge of an audience either. Then the film stars are not unknown but no real stars they’re a more recognizable cast, which at least keeps the cost of the budget down but how is it going to make any money because it’s not like the film has two dramatic storylines it’s not that funny intentionally, and there are no real action sequences and the stakes aren’t big enough for you to really care or even be suspenseful.

The film is supposed to be an ensemble, but the characters are separate through most, as each seems seduced or on their own separate adventure then they finally come together at the end. It feels like we should see them as a team, at least at first see how they work together, or at least the film could’ve shown how they learn to work together. Instead of just seeming like they separate stories, come together or cross paths at the end. The film is an origin story that should come off more as a film like THE DIRTY DOZEN as they are all ex-cons given a chance on a suicide mission who are forced together of sorts, to learn to make it as a team. They come off as a bunch of at the time hip club kids trying to solve a mystery that involves a conspiracy. If it was played that way with a bit more comedy and impressive action. The film could have worked

Whereas you know, the enjoyment of this film is subjective as some might like, or enjoy, like a date or romance with a beauty that ends up, not working out in the end, or eventually, but good enough for the time being. Where it’s not right for some but good enough for others it all comes down to the right place at the right time, maybe something chemical or even the vibe. Unfortunately, this film just doesn’t seem to have exactly what it takes.

Grade: C-

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.p...ctionFilmsGToM

The Mod Squad is a prime example of how not to adapt a Cult Classic from TV Land. The source material is considered So Bad, It's Good at its worst, but its film adaptation, produced in 1999, fails at even that, being not just woefully predictable within the first ten minutes, but also horribly miscast—Claire Danes in particular doesn't look very interested in her role, forcing her co-stars to overcompensate, and Omar Epps looks a quite bit too old to easily pass for a high school delinquent. The film attempts to go in a Darker and Edgier direction than its predecessor, complete with an R rating from the MPA, at the expense of quality humor, with Giovanni Ribisi struggling to imitate Horatio Caine or Gil Grissom when they were just a brace of glimmers in Jerry Bruckheimer's eye, and the action scenes come across as quite lacking. Even the retraux vibe fails miserably. Small wonder Rotten Tomatoes reported only 3% positive reviews out of 63 and Metacritic gave it an average score of 16 based on 21 reviews.