review for Ground Control on AllMovie

For a straight-to-video release with little financial means, Ground Control is a surprisingly tense and reasonably realistic attempt to portray the profession that gives its practitioners an athlete's rush while also turning them prematurely gray. That a rusty, shell-shocked retiree has no place among them is abundantly clear, but Keifer Sutherland rises to the challenge -- because he's the hero, naturally. Ground Control contains way too many sweaty flashbacks by anyone's standards, but the script is sleekly frantic enough that it doesn't need such a crutch. A movie like this requires an eyeball-rolling conglomeration of mishaps in order to ratchet up the suspense, but it's believable that a second-tier airport might indeed hamstring its equipment through scrimping to the point that a situation like this could arise. The methods the characters use to circumvent their navigational equipment seem plausible, as well, in addition to providing genuine excitement. The actors show commitment to the material beyond their desire to collect a paycheck, which might seem like the only motivator in a film that was never likely to get wide distribution. Sutherland is especially convincing in a rare understated performance. Ground Control would doubtless collapse under scrutiny from real air traffic controllers, but as a piece of pop entertainment for laymen, it's a nice underdog treat.