Bullet Points: Out of Control
Survival movies have been a popular action movie genre, but they don’t really work for modern times. Cell phones have pretty much seen to that. Good thing is that there are plenty to look back at and even find ones that are new to me. The 1985 movie Out of Control sees high school students getting stranded on an island after their prom without any form of communication. Can you imagine high schoolers today without their cell phones?
- Remote Control – The opening of Out of Control almost had me reaching for the remote if it wasn’t for The Brothers Jonson’s “Out of Control” playing. We see kids, both young and old, hamming it up for the camera. Out of Control is less than 90 minutes and this is pure filler. It turns out it is a music video by one of the high school students, but that doesn’t excuse the disgusting pasta dinner that two of our leads engage in. Both Keith (Martin Hewitt, Private War) and Chrissie (Betsy Russell, Trapper County War) are out of control.
- Air Control – Keith and Chrissie are joined by Gary (Richard Kantor) who they keep reminding us has taken flying lessons (that doesn’t seem important) and his date Robin (Cindi Dietrich). Tina (Claudia Udy, The Pink Chiquitas) brings along her boyfriend Cowboy (Jim Youngs) and although Cowboy is not from the high school, I will allow it because Cowboy is a cool name. Every 80s movie needs a nerd and Elliot (Andrew J. Lederer) fits the bill to a T, and Keith’s sister Katie (Sherilyn Fenn, The Wraith) rounds out the group. A nice sea plane trip to Keith’s parent’s islands immediately after the prom seems like a good plan, until it crashes in the ocean. Luckily, they all survive sans injury which is a surprise considering all the crying and screaming that took place. I should say they all survived except the pilot, but he was old and not attractive so no harm no foul.
- Ground Control – Now on a deserted island, things actually start to look good. The group is able to start a fire, find some shelter and more importantly a place for the women to swim in the sun. Well, that is important for the audience, the cache of food and booze is more important for the survivors. All the booze gets the teens worked up… if you know what I mean. If not, I am talking about strip spin the bottle. Remember that two of the characters are supposed to be brother and sister, but that is not as strange as the fact that they are able to dance to the music we the audience hear although there is no music on the island. Either way, I don’t care as I kind of want to be stranded on an island some time soon.
- Gun Control – Just when things are looking good, some classic HS BS comes into play as is common in these 80s movies, but the shit really hits the fan when some gun smugglers who use the island show up. Everyone but Cowboy gets kidnapped and of course the bad guys are super rapey. It never fails, but at least they take both a man and a woman in their attempted rape. Will Cowboy save the day? You can’t have a character named Cowboy and not have him do some cool out of control shit. Sadly part of his cool shit is blowing up the smugglers’ boat and they are still stranded. Out of Control wouldn’t leave the high schoolers that we have come to love stranded on the island? Didn’t Gary take flying lessons? Ah, the rest of the smugglers have shown up in a sea plane and we’ve got ourselves an excellent gun-filled finale with a way out for our heroes.
Out of Control is a short little action movie that is actually probably longer than it needs to be, but for certain scenes that were pretty common in these types of 80s movies. You won’t see a modern movie with this story without some convoluted reason how no cell phone works and that is why movies like Out of Control are fun to watch. What is also fun is taking a look at some Out of Control Bonus Bullet Points.
- Cut it Out – Does anyone else remember the Dave Coulier kids show that was also called Out of Control?
- Wrestling Tonight – Out of Control was directed by Allan Holzman whom I always remember as the director of Grunt! The Wrestling Movie… rock’n roll’n wrestling tonight!
- Where? – In something else you wouldn’t see in a movie today, Out of Control was partially filmed in Yugoslavia. Try finding that on the map on your modern cell phones.
- Makes Sense – The Yugoslavia location explains why I recognized one of the smugglers, Slobodan Dimitrijevic, from his role in Gymkata.
