The first—and worst—of a handful of movies based on ’70s cop shows (an undistinguished list that includes Starsky & Hutch and SWAT), The Mod Squad had pretensions of trying to rise above its source material—a youth-oriented police drama featuring a trio of attractive delinquents (and the tagline: “One White, One Black, One Blonde”). The movie was a disaster for the studio, taking in only $15 million against its $50 million budget.
WHAT OTHERS SAID:
“… Devoid of original plotting or suspense, clumsy in exposition, reliant on ponderous music to underline its attempts to portray action, played by unbelievable principals and ill-defined subsidiary characters forced to mouth dull dialogue that reaches the ridiculous, “The Mod Squad” is a film of unusual ineptitude. … At the end, theater exit signs are welcome beacons.”
— Lawrence Van Gelder, New York Times, May 26, 1999
ROTTEN TOMATOES RATING: 4%
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