Fugitive at 17 (2012 TV Movie) User Reviews

Girl on the run

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 20 August 2016]

With Ottawa standing in for Philadelphia which you only see in establishing shots, Fugitive At 17 is a decent enough drama about a girl on the run. Marie Avgeropoulos is invading male nerd space as she is both beautiful and a computer hacker, not the image one usually has of hackers. But it's her computer skills that are invaluable to her right now as she seeks to clear herself of a murder charge, the murder of her best friend.

She goes with Cindel Chartrand usually to keep an eye on her as she's beautiful and a bit of a wild child. But they split at a club with Avgeropoulos going off with Daniel Rindress-Kaye and Chartrand being picked up by Casper Van Dien. Van Dien slips her a roofie and Chartrand dies of it and he attacks Avgeropoulos when she goes looking for her friend. The cops think she killed her friend.

The plot is kind of weak here and a good lawyer would have gotten her off as there was never even a motive hinted at why she would kill her friend. But later on while being transported to jail with some real feminine hard cases she gets caught up in an escape.

It's a good news bad news situation. Bad because she's a fugitive, good because she's free to investigate herself. She has a detective played by Christina Cox whom she gradually convinces of her innocence.

I liked Avgeropoulos's character. She's got a lot of Nancy Drew in her for the 21st century. Nancy could never have kept up and in touch with law enforcement and her father if she didn't have what this girl has available to her.

Casper Van Dien who is usually a square jawed hero reverses type against himself to play a predator. And play it well.

Fugitive At 17, not a bad film for a made for Lifetime TV job.

"(twig snapping)"

[doug_park2001 · 5/10 · 11 June 2014]

Holly Hamilton (Marie Avgeropoulos) is a precocious Philadelphia high school senior who hacks into computers and commits insurance fraud and various other crimes--but only for the noblest of purposes. When she is framed for the murder of her best friend at a rave--which Holly, of course, only went to because her friend insisted--she must go on the run and prove her innocence to the local cops led by tough but compassionate detective and mom Cameron Langford (Christina Cox).

This made-for-TV production is the latest of MTI/Lifetime's "at 17" series, a little (but not much) rougher and grittier than its predecessors, "Stalked at 17" and "Betrayed at 17." Fans of this series should definitely enjoy it. It's professionally filmed with decent acting. Plot-wise, it pretty much follows the old formula, with a few tiny surprises and a classic "Scooby Doo" ending. This script is staid and unimaginative: I like to use memorable lines of dialogue as the titles of my reviews, but the best thing I could find here was the above closed captioned stage direction.

Simply entertaining but quite contrived: Although Holly has had her share of bad luck, she also has some rather amazing strokes of fortune. While Avgeropoulos does the best job possible of portraying her, this character is an unbelievable paragon of brilliance and off-center virtue, a veritable Robin Hood who, despite many of fate's turns working against her, has apparently never done one truly wrong or foolish thing in her entire life.

Subject matter notwithstanding, FUGITIVE AT 17 is TVland clean: An unexplicit rape attempt, some mild violence, lots of chase scenes, no real gore or nudity, a few "damns" and b-bombs but no f-bombs, etc.

Oh, well. I realize that films of this sort have their share of fans, and I hope those people won't take too much exception to my little wise-ass observations here.

good for low budget TV movie.

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 31 August 2013]

Holly Hamilton (Marie Avgeropoulos) is an independent loner teen computer hacker who has a history with the cops. She has only one friend and her name is Blake. When they go to a bar to celebrate, Blake is lured away by a serial rapist. Holly goes in search of Blake and comes upon the rapist. He kills Blake and frames Holly for the crime.

This is a made-for-TV movie, and it looks like it. Luckily the story had a little bit of ambition which made it somewhat watchable. Marie Avgeropoulos is good looking and fairly physical. But she doesn't really have the facial expressions to do in-depth acting. The story has some tension, but the low budget just doesn't allow for big action. It's watchable, but forgettable.

fix the opening credits, the hallmark last scene, and some plausibility issues, and it might be a 6.

[witster18 · 5/10 · 9 September 2014]

As it stands, it's a 5/10. Slightly better than most of you average afternoon TV-movie fare, but CERTAINLY NOT worth it's current 6.3 IMDb rating. I'll use Brian De Palma's "Passion" as a gauge there, as it's rated 5.3, and it's exemplary in terms of production quality and style compared to something like this. Far better acted and just strides better overall.

Right off the bat we see the television/budget shortcomings. Terrible opening sequence with awful, cheap credits, blurry stock, and the whole beginning rushed to-boot, in typical TV-movie fashion.

Then the film gains some steam with a promising start from the lead. Casper is also good as the villain here. As bad as the production values are, the film flows quite nicely, and the audience does feel for the lead character and her plight. BUT!

The acting still falls flat in many places and there are some serious plausibility issues both procedural and otherwise, and the film just ends and starts a bit TOO much like a TV movie. The middle third isn't bad at all, but don't expect much.

48/100 seen much worse. I knew the production values would be questionable but they were worse than I expected. The acting and the flow of the film were better than I expected, but I didn't expect much.

I'd pass. Not even worth the $1.32 rental at the redbox.

In hind-site, TV movies that are worth watching are rare... super rare.. and most that are worth watching were made by HBO films. Brian's Song, Long Gone(Stogies), Temple Grandin... Duel... there just aren't many GREAT TV movies.

Fugitive at 17 isn't terrible, but it did nothing to distance itself from being 'a decent television movie' at the very best. I mean that in the 'this is a basic cable movie, not a 'premium channel' movie' kind of way to boot. Again, pass.

surprisingly good Lifetime flick

[alannasser · 8/10 · 29 June 2013]

While bearing the stamp of a Lifetime movie, Fugitive at 17 is quite a few cuts above standard Lifetime fare. The story is not terribly original, but the writing, plotting and acting is a good deal more than you might expect. There are virtually none of the standard Lifetime tropes: sentimentality, amateurish performances and warm, upbeat, sappy smiles and chuckles exchanged among characters. The two leads are real actors. Marie Avgeropolous is a convincing and compelling performer with a focused intensity that is not overdone. Christina Cox's performance style is more reserved, but very professional and carefully crafted. We also get production values that exceed Lifetime's bland low-budget output. The pacing and well done suspense scenes in this movie should keep you away from the fast forward button.

The two leads(Avgeropoulus/Cox) that are the only 2 people in this that can actually ACT!

[mastermaker-27886 · 4/10 · 23 July 2022]

The only reason I rate this at 4 stars is because without the 2 leads this would have been a 1 star execution of a story that had the potential to live up to the 6 star rating...

Marie Avgeropoulos and Cristina Cox carry this movie, it could have been a lot better but when there is exactly 2 people in it that is actually capable of portraying a character in a way that makes you see the character rather than just some person pretending('acting'...) to be whomever they are portraying, the end result is obviously less than good...

The story is decent and the writing isn't horrible but in the end you watch it because of the 2 leads and just kinda suffer through the rest of them...

**** for Fugitive At 17

[edwagreen · 10/10 · 8 July 2012]

Terrific suspense thriller where 2 girls certainly get more than what they bargained for when they attend a college party. One girl is drugged to death and her friend is soon blamed for her death when the killer drugged her as well and planted narcotics in her purse.

The rest of the story is devoted to hunting down the girl who is able to escape while being transported to a facility. Clever, she is able to trace the culprit to the economics department at the college. Problem throughout is that no one will really believe her except a police woman who is being pressured to get results from her superior, her former ex-husband.

Bad acting ruins good script

[geoffox-766-418467 · 2/10 · 4 December 2013]

Sorry to disagree with most other reviews. I thought the story line was very good and some of the actors did adequate jobs. Noteworthy the Grandmother, the female detective, Christina Cox, and the friend played by Cindel Chartrand. But the leading player, Marie Avger. . .., was over the top acting and seemed out of place opposite the other performers. Sort of high school acting when others played simplicity and believable characters. You had sympathy and compassion for them. This critic felt nothing for the leading role of Holly. She acted too much in the part. I always like to find something positive in actors and their work. But in this one, I gotta say I just didn't like her work. Maybe too old for a high school student and one look on her face throughout the movie. A blank sort of stare. Walking around so obviously conspicuously that it was funny. The scene in the restaurant where there were two cops, she walks out hunched over with this stupid hood over her face. So obvious. And continues walking everywhere with the hood over her head. I just thought she was wrong in the role as compared to the others. Sorry.

Boring, even for a TV movie

[deloudelouvain · 3/10 · 12 August 2018]

Why is it that you can immediately see it when it is a television movie? From the first second of Fugitive At 17 it screams TV movie. From the first second I already regretted watching this movie. It oozes bad script, bad acting, and bad sound. The story is one of those stories we all saw hundred times before but all with a better execution. The major characters in this movie are played by Christina Cox and Marie Avgeropoulos, and it's obvious they will never get a big role in a decent movie. They are perfect to appear everynow and then in dumb series. No need to say their characters are painful to watch due to their mediocre acting. To create an ambiance in a movie you need good sound effects and music, and this was probably the lamest thing about this movie while it should be the easiest thing to fix. Nothing wrong with TV movies though, there are some good ones, but this one is clearly not one of them.

Best Lifetime Movie yet

[PaulGregs · 10/10 · 11 April 2013]

Now THIS is a film to really get excited about on the Lifetime network. FUGITIVE AT 17 works extremely well as an action movie and as a thriller. The audience makes an immediate connection with Holly, our lead heroine played with fierce intensity by Marie Avgeropoulos. Once the inciting incident occurs as Holly is accused of her friend's drug murder, we're off and running on a roller coaster ride as she tries to evade her pursuers and find the truth. I was pleasantly surprised at how unpredictable and fun this film was. The smart writing and well done execution puts you right in the middle of all the action. The characters were developed well and the action keeps moving at a brisk pace. It definitely makes me want to see more in the "At 17" franchise.

Holly Runs for Her Life!!!

[lavatch · 9/10 · 21 April 2020]

"Fugitive at 17" has the look and feel of a feature film, as opposed to a modest made-for-television movie. The scripting, the acting, and the film aesthetics were on a par with a film for A-listers. Everything came together for a solid thriller with an especially memorable protagonist.

Holly Hamilton was so devoted to her bestie Blake that she took the rap on a drug charge so that Blake would be let off easy on probation. Once again, she devotedly and unadvisedly accompanies Blake to a party on a school night. Blake is killed by a predator who administers a roofie that disagreed with her system. Holly was also drugged and attacked, but took away a couple of clues about the man's cologne and long finger nails.

The secondary characters, especially the female police detective, were also well developed. Detective Cameron Langford slowly become sympathetic to Holly's cause. Dan, a young man whom Holly met at the party, is also devoted to proving her innocence. The old grandma was also a warm and supportive character.

The pacing of the film was brisk, and the locations were well-chosen for the action. The actress playing the heroine-on-the-run was terrific. Kudos to the cast and the production team in this extremely well-crafted thriller!

Great Movie

[ottoradar12 · 10/10 · 1 June 2014]

i rented this movie from red box the other day, when it first started out i thought it was going to be open of those crappy low budget films. After about 15 minutes in there was a great plot twist, after we find out holly was responsible for her best friend Blake's murder we have to just hope that holly can figure out what to do next. In the movie they portrayed her as a hacker i wish they would have put more of this is the movie. As for the suspense i was sitting wondering what would happen next for most of the movie. If this movie comes on TV, or its in your local red box you should for sure check it out, get it for movie night or something. Great movie!

I love this movie

[shortstella · 10/10 · 11 November 2017]

This movie is my kind of movie. Suspense, Determination, True Friendship, Not giving up, Facing justice, Being justice. Holly didn't give up at all. She made sure the person was found. The thing that stood out the most is that she wasn't protecting herself and her own justice. She was focused on making sure the person who killed her best friend was put to justice. And Holly even put herself in danger's way to be a friend for her friend.