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I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into with Otis. I
had seen the standard DVD on the shelves in stores when it first
hit home video, and the cover didn’t grab me, so I never bothered
with it. Then, a few months later, the Blu-ray release winds
up on my doorstep… and so, I pop it in. Boom,
the movie just starts right up (more on that later) and, after a
rather serious opening, the movie shows its true colors.
Happy, pretty colors at that.
Now, for some reason, Otis has earned himself
a bit of a bad reputation amongst horror fans… but, after watching
it, I’m not entirely sure why. Hell, I actually enjoyed
it. My fiancée enjoyed it, too -- and she hates the
movies I watch! Sure, Otis is another direct-to-video
flick from the Raw Feed production company (the folks that
brought you the Rest Stop series -- please, try
to contain your excitement), but that doesn’t instantly make
it bad. I think people were expecting it to be another women-being-shackled-raped-and-hacked-to-bits
flick. Instead, they were given a well-acted and extremely
dark comedy that takes a poke at the whole torture porn thing that
many hacks in the business are making a quick buck off of. Long
story short: the movie probably came off as being downright dumb
to people that were expecting it to be something that it really isn’t.
Did that make sense? I just re-read that about ten times,
and each time, it kinda read like a big long sentence of
horseshit. Oh, well…
Otis Broth (Bostin Christopher) is an extremely large, fat, icky
troll of a man… the kind you assume would live in his parent’s
basement and watch Star Trek re-runs all day long. To
an extent, you would be right: Otis does spend time in the
basement and he does watch a lot of TV… only the underground
room is more like a dungeon and his source of entertainment is watching
his prisoner, “Kim.”
No matter what their name may be, once Otis abducts them, they
become “Kim”… until the victims do something to
incur the psychologically damaged giant’s wrath that results
in their dismembered bodies finding new homes in various dumpsters
strewn across the city.
Now enter the Lawson family: the picturesque suburban family comprised
of a spineless father in the construction business (Daniel Stern),
the registered nurse of a mother (Illeana Douglas), a troublesome
teenage son (Jared Kusnitz), and the sweet innocent high school sweetheart
daughter (Ashley Johnson)… who is exactly Otis’ type
now that the last “Kim” has gone South. Also appearing
in the movie is the wonderful Kevin Pollack as Otis’ abusive
brother Elmo and the underrated Jere Burns as the moronic FBI Agent
assigned to get a clue (Burns would make a good Joker in his older
years, you know?).
As I had barely mentioned earlier, it’s the acting that makes Otis so
amusing: Illeana Douglas is a magnificent actress and her performance
here is nothing short of exceptional as the mom with the hidden sadistic
streak who gets a chance to let it all out along with her hubby and
son when the tables turn (a moment that will have you either jumping
for joy or hiding in shame… depending on your values, I guess… me?… hell,
I don’t have any).
Presentation
Having been shot on HD Video, Otis will probably never look
fantastic. I imagine Warner tried to make this Blu-ray transfer
look as good as humanly possible, but the image comes
off as rather soft and a bit artificial at times (Note to all
video companies: lay off of the artificial enhancement shit on your
Blu-ray releases! Please!). The
1080p 2.40:1 widescreen picture of this “Uncut” version
of the film (it’s the same version on regular DVD -- the “Uncut” claim
is just some marketing hype) also suffers from a little grain.
Two English soundtracks are included with this Blu-ray: a Dolby
TrueHD 5.1 and a Dolby Digital Surround 5.1. Frankly, I didn’t
notice much of a difference, and neither soundtrack had me in a state
of auditory ecstasy (except when certain selections from the movie’s
soundtrack came into play: The Talking Heads, A Flock Of Seagulls,
Blue Öyster Cult, Devo, Quiet Riot, and The B-52s, too!). Also
on the 25gb disc are two Dolby Surround audio options: Spanish and
Portuguese. Subtitles are provided in English (SDH), French,
Spanish, Portuguese, and Chinese.
Extras
Here’s where I came face to face with Disappointment… and,
to my surprise, Disappointment was about as large as Otis.
This Blu-ray release, despite being burned onto a 25gb disc (twenty-five
gigs, folks), does not offer a single Special Feature. There
isn’t even a Trailer for any of the other Raw Feed productions
or Blu-ray Promo spot we are all accustomed to seeing.
The Main Menu? It’s the only Menu here. And
it has only one option: Play Movie.
Frown.
The Bottom Line
A fun, demented comedy and Daniel Stern’s finest performance
since C.H.U.D.
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