Out of Control

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.