Out of Control (2009 TV Movie) User Reviews

Only one reason to watch

[Onetrack97 · 4/10 · 21 June 2019]

This movie is an average to poor "made for TV" movie.

There's only one reason to watch, Laura Vandervoort. One of the most beautiful woman in the world, and she can actually act.

The writing and directing are the main problem and some of the supporting cast is also pretty weak.

cheap cop show

[SnoopyStyle · 4/10 · 5 May 2019]

Marcie Cutler (Laura Vandervoort) works police forensics in Chicago and aspires to be a detective despite her hero cop father's objection. She is brought into a new murder case. It's detective Lisa Grant's drug dealer informant. She's a recovering drunk and her gun is missing. She and Gus Sutton investigate the case with personal motives. Their supervisor Sinclair suspects a crooked cop within their ranks and brings in outsider Marcie to investigate.

I'm all in for Vandervoort. She is a gorgeous human being. Her acting is better than expected. This is a cheap cop drama. Quite frankly, Lisa is the more compelling character. The story would function better as a paranoid crime drama with Grant as the lead. Marcie is the less dramatic and less believable character. The plot is forcing her into the story. It would be more believable for getting Marcie's father into the investigation. The production, the writing, and the directing are all second rate. I imagine if this is the pilot, the show would not get picked up.

atrocious doesn't come close

[blanche-2 · 4/10 · 26 August 2015]

Boy this thing had the stamp of Lifetime all over it. Released in 2009 and produced in Canada, Out of Control stars Laura Vandervoort, an absolutely stunning blonde. She plays Marcie, who is a Chicago cop longing to be a detective. She gets her chance, against the wishes of her retired officer father.

In real life, Vandervoort has a second degree black belt in karate. I have a feeling in her case it was necessary.

I actually can't describe the acting in this because I didn't see any. The pacing is terrible, and the characters are vapid and not very likable. They all have attitude for days. Then there's the script.

And it's badly miscast. I'm not saying beautiful women don't become policewomen, of course they do. But I wouldn't describe Laura Vandervoort as simply beautiful. We're talking Miss Universe or supermodel here.

Someone like this, if she wanted to be involved in law enforcement, would be doing something that required her to go undercover exposing drug lords, corruption in high finance, doing FBI stings. Certainly she'd be too valuable for a job investigating murder on the Chicago police force.

Annoying rather than entertaining.

telegraph script

[sandcrab277 · 3/10 · 7 May 2019]

Aside from the fact you knew the dirty cop from the onset, the rest was predictable and took far too long to bring him to justice ... no partner would sink the other so that should have been the first clue ... they both should have had their badges and guns taken and put on administrative leave while internal affairs investigated ... apparently chicago police department doesn't have an internal affairs division ... the death of a confidential informant would under most circumstances would call for an iad review ... i also thought the karate moves at the end were stupidly done .... chris kramer made the perfect sleezy dirty cop .. he oozed oil

Should be titled "Out of the Trash"

[guil12 · 5 April 2009]

Typical LMN empty plot trite with typical bleached blond in the lead. I was rooting for the villains in this one for certainly Laura Vandervoot in the lead was more of a bitch than any one else. Always with a nose in the air attitude and going around looking out of place in the police station. She annoyed me very much as she stepped on all in her way. I had wished someone would have done her in. No such luck. We're forced to look at this bimbo for two hours attempting to unravel the plot walking over all in her way. Some broad, eh? Even her own father, she smart mouths. By the way he gave one of the better acting jobs. Francis X. McCarthy didn't have much to do, but the little he did do, was fine. Amy Sloan also did a great job in an unrewarding role. I wanted her to bash in the leading lady's head when she gave her so much crap. There is nothing rewarding about this mess. Oh, yes, Chris Kramer plays the man in the film and he does a decent job. I felt sorry for them all to have to play opposite such a loser. Her so called karate moves in the end are so laughable, I split my sides. She's such a bad actress and unbelievable from beginning to end. Frightening to think this blond bimbo will be on the police force. Egads!

Soap opera no talent actors

[genesisgirl-18794 · 1/10 · 20 March 2023]

Pathetic cop show with below level acting. Laura Vandervort (whoever she is...) Is a horrible wanna be actress with the voice and IQ of character Kelly on the 90s high school series 90210. Is it possible to actually hire talented actors to captivate the audience with skills that should have been attained in acting school? Yawn... So tired of no brains, just looks like Barbie and Ken. Actors earn an enormous amount of money. So why not be worth what you so generously get paid for? The film was a boring rendition of an NCIS Miami episode. Thumbs so far down to the casting director that I hope you resign your position.

Really bad

[rl-jones · 2/10 · 7 September 2019]

Gave up after 10 minutes. When they are at the scene in the auto wreckers and Linda's character comes up with a rather whole looking 9mm projectile and says it is a 9mm. She then says as a question, Glock? the one male cop says, Glock 9 (no such model). You can't tell what make of gun fired a bullet by looking at the bullet. Wouldn't subject myself to anything further after this scene. save the 90 minutes of your life for watching the test pattern channel, or watching paint dry.

Average+

[cathed · 6/10 · 21 July 2018]

This is the usual suspense movie, good enough to hold your attention but nothing you'll be talking to your friends about afterward. Ms. Vandervoort does a fair job in this, as do the others, and it held my interest well enough. I've never felt much sympathy for stunningly beautiful women, not being one myself; I figured their beauty compensated for whatever prejudices they faced. Reading the venomous comments regarding Ms. Vandervoort, though, gave me an insight into the malice some people direct their way. This movie is not destined to be a classic studied in film classes, true, but the actors and actresses in it do an average to slightly above-average job.

is anyone acting here?

[Cilica · 2/10 · 26 December 2019]

Crack me up how horrible the acting is. Script my good the wanna be detective id dumb. She's supposed to be investigating police officers but then sleeps with the cop. Strange story = there is a bad cop but this wanna bee is only working one case and two officers.

Surprising, despite the standard clichés

[caiged · 6/10 · 23 March 2009]

In all honesty I was expecting a pretty bad movie but I have to say that it turned out to be okay.

Plotwise it's your usual TV movie of the week standard fare. Nothing electrifying and the pace is rather pedantic but it's definitely a lot better than 80% of the made for TV movies that I've seen, and unfortunately for me I've seen quite a lot lately! The main cast puts their time in even if it is rather listlessly and formulaic. The only downside to the casting is that of Laura Vandervoot. She's highly unconvincing in her supposed role as a police criminologist and even more so as an aspiring detective to be, instead looking fashionable in most scenes and not really doing much. For someone who's supposedly top of their class in detective school she sure makes a lot of big mistakes and crosses some professional lines. However, the surprising part is that she didn't do a bad acting job. Nothing spectacular but nothing that sank to the depths of a certain Paris Hilton, which I must admit I had been expecting.

All in all, if you've got nothing to do on a Sat night, or even a weeknight and are waiting for the laundry to finish drying it's worth filling in the time. Don't watch with high expectations and you'll make it through the movie just fine.

First-Rate Television Thriller

[lavatch · 8/10 · 21 June 2019]

In the first ten minutes of "Out of Control," it is easy to sum up the gist of the film: good cop, bad cop.

It is clear that the good cop is Marcie Cutler, a forensics expert who is working hard to make detective in Chicago. Her crusty dad was a detective, and she is following in his footsteps.

The bad cop is Augustus "Gus" Sutton, a smooth-talking charmer who, beneath his smarmy surface, is a vicious killer and crooked cop. Gus appears to have everyone hoodwinked, as he methodically sets up his partner Lisa Grant for killing a snitch.

But the quick-thinking Marcie works closely to the evidence and sees that something is fishy. Her work is right on the button--literally--when she discovers that a button missing from Lisa's coat was intentionally cut off. That is a major clue as to how Lisa was being framed.

There was some great location filming in grand old redbrick buildings of Chicago, as well as excellent stock footage. All of the roles were well developed, including the tough female police chief Sinclair and the fellow pathologist who is in love with Marcie.

As the film progresses, it is clear that no one should be messing with Marcie Cutler, who will never allow things to get out of control.

Not bad. Not good.

[rgcustomer · 6/10 · 23 December 2009]

Actually, after the first 10 minutes of this, I was expecting another Canadian thrown-together piece of trash. In fact, I skipped ahead to the credits to verify the usual suspects (The Movie Network, MovieCentral, Canadian Film or Video Tax Credit, etc.). But I like to finish what I start, so I went back and watched it through.

To say I was "pleasantly" surprised probably isn't the right terminology. The movie is bad. It really should have been an episode in some TV series, at best, rather than eating up valuable movie time. But it wasn't the trip to the dentist that I was expecting. It keeps up a decent pace (mostly) and has an identifiable plot. The city obviously isn't Chicago, but it at least isn't obviously any other place either (unless you happen to live where it was shot). It's not Serpico, but it's OK, as another person wrote, to do laundry to.

In contrast to the other comment-writers, I have to say that Vandervoort's casting was the only good choice. All the others are clearly way out of their element (that is, in front of a camera) and not remotely believable in their roles (although some of this is due to the dreadful script, but good actors avoid such roles, so ultimately it is their fault). At least Vandervoort demonstrated the confidence that you'd expect in someone working for law enforcement, if nothing else. I doubt any of these characters (any of them) would last a day in the real job.

Annoying Marcie!

[haroot_azarian · 14 September 2021]

So Marcie is an arrogant sl-t bit-h forrensic scientist wannabe detective who is totally clueless direspecting her dad and ignoring his valued advice! I agree with another contributor. They should have had a scene where Lisa beats Marcie to a pulp! By the I cannot stand the guy who plays the bad cop Gus! He also played a dirty cop in Her Fatal Flaw alongside Victoria Pratt!