possible spoiler three young people on the wrong side of the law be give a chance to turn their life around and become useful member of society by become undercover cop in ` the mod squad and a resurrection of the hit television series of the 60 and direct by scott silver . give their less than stellar background and and because of who they be and the people they know and julie barnes ( claire dane ) and pete cochran ( giovanni ribisi ) and lincoln hayes ( omar epps ) can go place other cop can not and so they be tap by captain adam greer ( dennis farina ) to infiltrate a seedy night spot suspect of be a front for a prostitution ring . for a start and julie get a job there a a waitress and while pete and linc just ` hang out to find out what they may . julie quickly becomes reacquaint with an old boyfriend and billy waite ( josh brolin ) and who turn out to be involve with drug and which be tie in to the shady dealing go down at the bar . before it over and the quad be in it up to their neck and while also run afoul of a bunch of wrong cop who be also involve with the drug and and consequently tie in with their investigation . from the beginning of the movie and there be a sense that you be come in late while a if it presuppose that you know what go on as far a the origin and working of the squad . all you get here be brief mug shot bios of the three that give you nothing more than a glimpse into their past while there nothing about how this all actually come about . the thinking be probably that by do it this way it would lead into the story quicker and get thing move along . while this be true to a certain extent and some added background would have make the texture of the story a bit more interesting while the way it be do here merely depreciate the credibility of the entire proceeding . the plot be marginal to begin with and and any time spend on character development would have be well worth the while . what deliver and and quite unimaginatively at that and be a less than compel story fill with one dimensional character . the performance be satisfactory and but the actor get no help from the script and nor apparently from silver while dane and ribisi and epps come close to flesh out julie and pete and linc and but give the time allot them and combine with the lack of support and they still fall way short of give these people life . farina and a good actor who deserve good than what he get here and come off a nothing more than a caricature of the ` good cop . there a feeling that everything be give the once over in this film while some detail and nuance would have drive the stock up considerably on this one . the support cast include richard jenkins ( detective mothershed ) and steve harris ( briggs ) and larry brandenburg ( eckford ) and lionel mark smith ( lanier ) and sam mcmurray ( tricky ) . it a shame to see the acting talent involve here waste like this while a lot more thought and planning should have go into the making of this movie . a it be and it come across a ill conceive and poorly execute . dane and ribisi and epps be like major leaguers who get stuck playing for all the marble at the local sandlot while instead of get a shot at the title and they all get hang out to dry . like terry say in ` on the waterfront and ` you be my brother and charlie and you shoulda be look out for me . well and it obvious that there be no charlie to look out for them here and and after ` the mod squad and they can all just hope for something well to come along the next time . i rate this one negative .