Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		2.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

Otis Blu-ray Movie Review

Uncut? 'Otis' feels incomplete at best.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman October 6, 2008

We are knee-deep in dookie.

The Dark Comedy has always been a prism through which filmmakers convey social angst, the darkest depths of man, or political satire framed in the context of comedy. American Psycho and Heathers are the genre's shining lights, films that embody the Dark Comedy to its core. Heathers is a film of teenage rebellion, acceptance, conformity, and hate. It offers a grisly, disturbing, poignant, and satirical look at high school in the 1980s, the stereotypes and cliques of the generation, and the isolation and despair of those left to sit at the corner table of the cafeteria to mull over the lifestyle from which they've been shunned or have chosen to shun, for whatever reason -- as they plot an end to conformity, vanity, and acceptance into the upper echelons of high school society with nothing other than good looks, the right clothes, or a starting position on the football team. Otis is also a dark comedy, but it lacks the depth and meaning of the best films of its kind. It's superficial, tries too hard to play on the high school angst angle, and morphs into an odd kind of revenge film that does send a clear message about the importance of levelheadedness in a time of crisis, but for the most part, the film fails to engender any emotional or intellectual response from the viewer. Nevertheless, Otis is a fun and interesting watch in context, taking it completely superficially and ignoring any of the jaunts the film tries to take into meaningful satire, but even then, the movie doesn't deliver on what seems to be the promise of gore, if one were to look at the various power tools and the "uncut" label attached to the Blu-ray release of the picture.

Get out of my dreams, get into my car!

Otis Broth (Bostin Christopher) is an unassuming pizza delivery boy by night (and a particularly bad one at that) and a psychotic kidnapper and molester by day. Hiding in his basement where he maintains a tortuous bedroom for his prey, replete with a filthy cot, sunlamps, electrified grates, an old telephone, spy cameras, and an industrial-strength chain to keep his victims at bay, Otis' young victims become his makeshift girlfriends in a bizarre routine where the couple reenact clichéd high school boyfriend-girlfriend dating activities. His latest victim, Riley Lawson (Ashley Johnson), plays the peppy cheerleader to Otis' fantasy as a Varsity football jock. She will share car rides in his stationary Trans-Am with a projection of a road behind, cheer for him, and attend the prom with him, while Otis acts out the role of the boyfriend, calling her on the telephone and even placing calls to her parents, Will and Kate (Daniel Stern, Home Alone, and Illeana Douglas, Stir of Echoes, respectively), asking for permission to keep Riley (or Kim, as he prefers to call her), out past curfew. When Riley's parents and her brother Reed (Jared Kusnitz) catch wind of where Otis lives, they decide to exact revenge, Lawson-family style. Only one man stands between them and Otis -- Otis' brother, Elmo (Kevin Pollack, End of Days).

Otis would perhaps be better served were it called: Otis: A Love Story. Otis does not love the girls he kidnaps. He doesn't love the thrill of the hunt. He doesn't even seem to relish having to hack them to pieces when he is finished with them. All he loves is a time and place and a set of experiences he never had. Otis is a man lost in self doubt, self-loathing for opportunities missed, and depression. He tries to overcome it, criminally, by forcing others into a fantasy that never played out for him in reality. Yes, the attraction to the girl must be there, but it's not about her -- its about fulfilling his dreams and rectifying his past, a past that never plays out during the movie. The audience never becomes privy to much of the backstory that set the character and his motivations up. One can easily surmise that Otis' high school years were met with embarrassment, shame, verbal and psychological torture and abuse, and humiliation. As a child, he was probably always the reluctant final pick for a game of touch football or basketball and slowly began living a life of seclusion. Nevertheless, his character is painted in such a way through the run-down home; the minimum-wage job; the filthy, sweat- and food-stained clothes; the scorn of his brother; and the lack of a social life to clue audiences in on the "whys" of his actions. What we have in Otis is a film that offers a second and third act, but no establishing first. There is little context in which to frame his actions. He's clearly crazy, and his appearance and odd fantasies spell out his motivations, but then again, when dealing with "crazy," there isn't always a "first act" or a rhyme or reason behind the insanity, which is part of the definition of the word to begin with.

If one is familiar with the Dark Comedy, and the two aforementioned films in particular, comparisons become inevitable. Otis works -- a little -- as a repressed anger, post-teen angst movie, which comprises the film's first half, but doesn't work so well as a satire on revenge or the human condition, which is what the film offers in is second half. One area where the film tries to mimic American Psycho is through its use of popular music set to various scenes of the film. American Psycho proved brilliant in its integration of music into its story line, but with Otis, the results are hit-and-miss. The film begins by playing Venus (the version by Shocking Blue, not Bananarama's famous version) and it sets a great tone to the scene and is a wonderful start to what looks like will be a great movie. American Psycho set such a lofty standard -- playing Hip to be Square as Patrick Bateman, portrayed by Christian Bale, hacks Paul Allen, portrayed by Jared Leto, to pieces, blood splattering everywhere and covering his face, a psychotic rage in his eyes so natural, so deep, so frightening, one wonders how Bale achieved such a wicked countenance in the first place. In Otis, however, the music has no powerful, emotionally disturbing visuals to back it up. There is practically no gore in the movie, no scenes of maniacal torture, abuse, or murder. All of the elements are in place, but there is no payoff. The music fits, but the story doesn't. This is why the first song, Venus, works. We have no basis for comparison, having not seen the rest of the picture, and to start the movie it creates an atmosphere that clues in more astute and cinematically in-tune audiences that they may be in for another American Psycho. Sadly, such is not the case.

The characters and the acting found in Otis make the movie, even if the acting leaves a bit to be desired. The actors do all they can with a script that is devoid of any real horror elements, and only approaches the periphery of dark satire, poking about the issue and superficially succeeding but failing to dive in and completely embrace the concept. Otis is an interesting character, played rather well by Bostin Christopher, and may remind audience of the character "Martha Dumptruck" from Heathers, the outcast, overweight girl who is the object of ridicule by her peers. One can easily see Otis in that role, and in such a context as described above, living out his high school years that resemble Martha's, his motivations become clearer. The entire Lawson family is intriguing, but the movie never builds on their sudden desire to slice and dice Otis for their own brand of twisted revenge-pleasure. A few moments of hesitation and unconvincing speech later, and daddy Lawson is suddenly ready to stick a hot curling iron down someone's throat. Like the rest of the movie, there is plenty of good potential here, but all of it is wasted and never gels. The worst character of the film is the halfwit detective that comes in to try and solve the case, but is capable of nothing more than aiming a laser pointer at people. He and his fellow officers have no tact when it comes to comforting the grieving family, going into detail about the various body parts of previous victims, and it's no wonder the family decides to bypass him and the law and seek their own justice. It's a necessarily bad character in the grand scheme of things, but the level of annoyance here supersedes any needed plot device. Kevin Pollack is a saving grace. He's always good and always reliable, and he plays Otis' hateful brother perfectly, scolding him to the point that Otis cannot even look him in the eye, playing in nice contrast to his mostly authoritarian stance with the various girls he encounters.

Otis Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Otis delivers an unimpressive visual experience. Presented in 1080p and framed at 2.35:1, the transfer is one of the lesser ones on the market. The film was shot on video, and it definitely looks it, coming off as a cheap made for TV movie. The image is smooth and offers a bright sheen over many shots with noise permeating the picture every now and again. Many shots are incredibly hazy with little resolution, clarity, or detail (a scene in chapter 11 featuring dialogue between Otis and Elmo is a fine example). Colors are moderately vibrant, only in places, but the movie never looks real. Very processed in appearance, flat, and completely uninteresting, nothing stands out and visually exciting. Black levels and flesh tones are questionable. Otis is a boring movie from a visual perspective and one of the lesser discs on the market in terms of video quality.

Otis Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Otis comes to Blu-ray with a lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack. Dialogue is a bit low in volume, but generally clear. Music is clear with decent fidelity and spread nicely across the front soundstage. The rear speakers get a good workout with some nice discrete effects in the form of gunfire heard over the opening news footage-inspired credits. There is a bit of rattling and rumbling from the subwoofer as Otis' junk mobile huffs and puffs its way out of frame after he kidnaps Riley in chapter 6. It also pans nicely across the soundstage with a solid rear presence. Like its video quality, Otis is completely uninteresting from a sonic perspective. It fares a little better than the video, however, and is a decent enough, if not forgettable, soundtrack.

Otis Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray edition of Otis is sure to torture Blu-ray fans with its lack of even one single supplement.

Otis Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Otis is a movie that lost its way somewhere between development and final product. The groundwork has been laid for a phenomenal Dark Comedy, a satiric look at the world of the lives of those shunned and ignored growing up, and of revenge, middle-class suburbia style. Neither element works all that well, particularly the latter. What's missing is a slightly harsher edge, the gore, and intensity. It does have the easygoing, free-spirited, independent feel, and the movie isn't a bad effort, just one that feels terribly incomplete. As it stands, Otis is watchable, in a 3:00 AM triple feature schlock drive-in sort of way. Warner Brothers and Raw Feed present Otis on Blu-ray as a completely bare-bones package, lacking even a main menu. The picture quality is subpar and the lossless soundtrack is nothing to brag about. Worth a rental for the curious.