i have little against remakes and updates of older films and tv series . 
if there's a will , there's a way ; and i believe that anything , no matter how great or revered can be effectively improved upon . 
this is the reason that i responded so well to gus van sant's universally panned update of psycho ; i thought it to be not only an intriguing cinematic experience , but also very on-par with an original . 
but i do have a big problem with remakes that are blatantly bad . 
you see , the point of a remake is , or at least it should be , to iron out the original's flaws and bring the work that much closer to greatness or even perfection . 
but what if the source material on which the remake is based isn't any good to begin with ? 
that is the only cinematic question pondered by the bland actioner the mod squad . 
i've only seen a couple episodes of the late 60s tv series on which it is based , and to be honest , i didn't like it all that much . 
it has a concept that -- and still is -- interesting ; a group of corrupt young adults , all in their early 20s are given a choice : they either go to jail for the various crimes that they all have committed , or they can become undercover cops , helping the police get into places that they normally wouldn't be able to access . 
obviously , all 3 opt for the latter option and become undercover policemen ( and policewomen ) . 
the three main characters here are played by claire danes , omar epps and giovanni ribisi . 
of the three , only danes has a real character . 
ribisi's dumbass 20 year old is played exclusively for laughs ; epps' slightly more intelligent one is used to create various chase scenes . 
when the squad's superviser gets killed off and his reputation dirtied in death , the three of them , sure that their beloved master was framed , go off and investigate on their own , discovering corrupt cops , lots and lots of expensive whores and very lucrative drug operations . 
all kinds of good stuff ! 
the only times that the mod squad comes even close to working is in its comedic moments . 
although ribisi is a trite actor and his characters repeat movie after movie , his man here is really rather amusing , when the script gives him a chance . 
epps' straight man is effectively played against ribisi's clueless spontaneity . 
but the rest of the film is dull , boring and singularly uninteresting . 
a drug-op action plot is no longer anything new , not even with teenage action heroes , and the way it's executed here , it's also nowhere near exciting or suspenseful . 
claire danes' character has potential , but it is buried under heaps of cliches and her performance is too restrained . 
she could have been a tour-de-force , but instead director scott silver puts shackles on her and simply does not allow her to do anything really significant with her role . 
epps and ribisi fare slightly better and do as well as can be expected , although their characters aren't nearly as rich as danes' could have been . 
the mod squad is a mind-numbing marketing plot of a film , and teens will jump all over it . 
it's full of bad dialogue , scenes and concepts that make no sense and -- get this -- drug dealers that like to tango with other guys in their spare time . 
nothing is remotely intriguing or worth paying for . 
claire danes is no longer alluring -- mainly because she's got a horrible hairdo , so that draw is out . 
there are , however , cool explosions , guns and chases which may lure a viewer into thinking that he or she is about to experience an exciting thriller of some sort . 
do not be fooled . 
some may call this escapist fare -- i call it escape-as-quickly-as-you-can fare . 
