Moviepedia

Recently, we've done several changes to help out this wiki, from deleting empty pages, improving the navigation, adding a rules page, as well as merging film infoboxes.

You can check out the latest overhauls that we have done on this wiki so far, as well as upcoming updates in our announcement post here.

READ MORE

Moviepedia
Advertisement

She's Out of Control is a 1989 independent American coming of age comedy film starring Tony Danza, Ami Dolenz and Catherine Hicks.

It was released on April 14, 1989 by Columbia Pictures and was distributed by the Weintraub Entertainment Group.

Plot[]

Spoiler Warning: The following contains important plot details of the entire film.

Widower Doug Simpson (Tony Danza) is a radio producer from California who lives with his two daughters, Katie (Ami Dolenz) and Bonnie (Laura Mooney). When his oldest daughter Katie turns fifteen, she suggests to her father that's it's time for her to start looking more grown-up.

For the last 14 years, Katie had been wearing dowdy clothes, braces & thick glasses and hanging around with Richard, her next-door neighbor & long-time boyfriend (who had won Doug's approval).

But when Doug leaves on a business trip, Katie transforms herself [along with the help of Doug's fiancée Janet Pearson (Catherine Hicks)] into a knockout beauty. When Doug returns, he is shocked to find boys from every walk of life interested in dating Katie.

Janet suggests that Doug needs psychiatric help when his obsession with Katie and her boyfriends reaches extreme limits and Doug seeks out an expert (Wallace Shawn) who gives him advice that goes wrong whenever Doug applies it.

Throughout the latter half of the film, Katie maintains three boyfriends, two of whom she eventually stops dating.

At the end of the film, Katie takes a class trip to Europe and reunites with Richard again and her younger, tomboy sister Bonnie begins her own dating spree. Doug also finds out that the "expert" never actually had any practical advice as he had never had a daughter himself.

Cast[]

  • Tony Danza as Doug Simpson
  • Ami Dolenz as Katie Simpson
  • Laura Mooney as Bonnie Simpson
  • Catherine Hicks as Janet Pearson
  • Wallace Shawn as Dr. Fishbinder
  • Derek McGrath as Jeff Robbins
  • Lance Wilson-White as Richard
  • Dana Ashbrook as Joey
  • Matthew Perry as Timothy (credited as Matthew L. Perry)
  • Dick O'Neill as Chuck Pearson
  • Dustin Diamond as Beach Boy
  • Oliver Muirhead as Nigel

Production[]

The filming dates for "She's Out of Control" began on April 25, 1988.

Even though Ami Dolenz plays a 15-year-old in the film, she was actually 20 years old at the time the film was made.

Filming Locations[]

The filming locations took place in California.

The Simpson family house was filmed at 1960 La France Avenue in South Pasadena. The KHEY radio station was filmed at Escarpment Studios located at 5610 Soto Street in Huntington Park.

The department store scene were filmed at Cassandre located at 18386 Ventura Blvd. in Tarzana.

The hotel scene was filmed at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and the beach scene was filmed at Leo Carillo State Beach in Malibu.

The pool scene was filmed in Sherman Oaks and the disco scene was filmed at Fantasia West in Northridge. The drive-in scene was filmed at Johnie's Broiler in Downey.

Dr. Fishbinder's office was actually filmed at the California United Bank in Los Angeles along with Janet Pearson's apartment building (located at 800 Traction Avenue).

The street race was filmed on McWane Blvd in Oxnard and the motel scene was filmed at the Malibu Shores Motel.

Box Office[]

"She's Out of Control" debut at #4 at the box office. During its opening weekend, it grossed $3,653,142.

Critical Reception[]

Based on 19 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes gave "She's Out of Control" a rating of 11%.

Chicago film critic Roger Ebert gave the film the rare zero stars rating on his written review of the film, saying:

"What planet did the makers of this film come from? What assumptions do they have about the purpose and quality of life? I ask because She's Out of Control is simultaneously so bizarre and so banal that it's a first: the first movie fabricated entirely from sitcom cliches and plastic lifestyles, without reference to any known plane of reality."

Leonard Maltin also panned the film, stating that it was a "superficial expanded sitcom with Danza offering a one-note performance," concluding with "this one seems as if it was spit out of a computer."

Film critic Gene Siskel hated "She's Out of Control" so much that he stated on "Siskel & Ebert" that it almost made him quit his job. Yet he stated that later the same day he saw a better teen comedy Say Anything... and it encouraged him not to quit.

Rita Kempley from the Washington Post described the film as "an insipid comedy about Daddy and Daddy's little girl" and called it "an irksome, one-dimensional sitcom with smut."

Theatrical Trailer[]

She's_Out_of_Control_(1989)_Trailer

She's Out of Control (1989) Trailer

Advertisement