She's Out of Control

A widower (Tony Danza) manages a radio station and takes care of his two girls. As he's away on business, his girlfriend (Catherine Hicks) gives his nerdy 15 year-old daughter (Ami Dolenz) a makeover. When the dad returns home his daughter is no longer a girl, but a blossoming woman who's attracting males left and right. Wallace Shawn plays a successful psychologist.

"She's Out of Control" (1989) is a coming of age dramedy that pokes fun at several things: The loving father who's overly concerned about his daughter's honor, a girl's discovery of her womanly powers, self-help authors who supposedly have everything figured out, and the challenging relationship between the daughter's boyfriend and her father .

The title isn't "false advertising" because everything's told from the perspective of the protagonist, which is Danza's character. To HIM, she is out of control. Speaking of Danza, he has John Ritter's likable charm and easily carries the movie.

Dolenz was 18 during shooting and is serviceable as the title character, but she got better in such roles as she aged, as witnessed in "Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings" (1993). The film would've been more successful if they casted a more iconic 80's actress in the role (although I'm glad Molly Ringwald didn't play the part, probably because she was too old by 1988 when the film was shot). On the other side of the gender spectrum, Dana Ashbrook stands out as rockin' loner Joey.

The main reason I was interested in seeing this flick was because Siskel & Ebert tore it to pieces on their show. Gene even said he considered quitting his job because of it. Seriously? It's a cute high school comedy focusing on a father's amusing travails, not frickin' "Gandhi." Meanwhile, in Ebert's review, he laughably psychoanalyzed the dad's attitude toward his daughter as "perverse," "sick" and "sexual." Really? All movies exaggerate reality to some degree, especially farces like this one. ALL fathers of nubile daughters can relate to his situation to some degree, even though it's amusingly EXAGGERATED.

The movie runs 1 hour, 30 minutes, and was shot in the Los Angeles area (South Pasadena, Malibu, Huntington Park, Downey, Oxnard and Hollywood).

GRADE: B-

I only felt the need to chime in here after seeing a review albeit 30 years old by Siskel and Ebert. They pretty much hated the movie so much they wanted to rethink their careers.

Yeah it's not anything profound or brilliant but I enjoyed it. And I'm a guy that likes classic movies as well, Gaslighting, The Godfather, On The Waterfront, Citizen Kane, Sound of Music, Gond With The Wind, etc.....

The movie is definitely very late 80's and reminds me of times/friends before the internet. Tony Danza plays an overprotective dad worried about his daughter whose now discovered boys and starts dressing sexy. All in all the movie's a hoot and reminds me of simpler times!

This is a really, really good movie.It's a great teen flick and it's enjoyable even if you're not a teen. There's no swearing in this movie;they only say b**ch once, that's it. There's no violence, there is however some sex-related talk. Except for that, it's a good clean movie. A great movie for fathers and daughters to watch together. Lots of very '80's hair, clothes,and music!Very funny, very cute, a good choice. I recommend it!

This is very much a film of its time. I'm not sure by 2024 standards it would fly in terms of PC content.

It remains fun though, it you can turn your brain off. Tony Danza does well with the questionable material he has to play out, and Ami Dolenz is good fun in her role.

Writing this after the extremely sad passing of Matthew Perry, this film of course also offers an early look into his talent, as he pops up here as one of the suitors. All the charm and humour is very much on display.

Overall, this is no less creepy than some of the elements that pop up in some of the John Hughes from a similar era, but seems to have been treated more harshly.

I didn't mind this film. It's one of those films that are good to watch really late at night, when you really just want to wind down. It is pretty silly, but it has some funny moments. Ami Dolenz can't act very well, but in the role she is playing it really doesn't matter. Dana Ashbrook is very amusing as the leather clad boyfriend from hell. But Matthew Perry is not particularly convincing as the all too perfect Yale college boy. Tony Danza seems to be treating the whole exercise like an extended version of a Who's the Boss? episode, which is probably why he was given the part. Although it's not very original, and similar theme films have done it much better, it's still not a bad effort. At least it was not boring.