Out of Control

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

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.

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.

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!

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.