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Otis: Uncut
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Warner Home Video Review written by and copyright: Pat Pilon (25th October 2008). |
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The Film
 Otis is a fat, balding, pathetic 40-year-old, and, it is easily gathered that he was never the most popular guy in high school. Ever since then, he pines to have a better 'high school experience.' He kidnaps girls (you see the fourth as the movie opens), goes out with them, goes to the prom with them and tries to get lucky with them. When he's done, he gets rid of them. 'Otis' is a strange bag, changing tone from scene to scene, going from goofy to creepy in just a few seconds. The movie focuses on Otis, and this is both good and bad. Not that the movie completely succeeds at its main task, but it attempts to make you feel for the serial killer. It also, in an indirect way, talks about high school life. Newcomer Bostin Christopher delivers a very nice performance, helping to get the required emotions across. He has a tough role here, and he plays the creepy psycho very well. On the other hand, the last 40 minutes of the movie takes a complete turn from the first hour and the tone shifts unevenly. Frankly, the blackly comic turn works extremely well and the movie would have been better if it had been in that same style throughout. The movie concerns the Lawson family - father Will (Daniel Stern), mother Kate (Illeana Douglas and son Reed (Jared Kusnitz) - and their ordeal after the kidnapping of their daughter (or sister) Riley (Ashley Johnson). Without giving away too much, the last 40 minutes doesn't show the best parts of human nature, but they're pretty funny. The cast assembled for this movie is pretty impressive. Riley is played by a young but experienced actress Ashley Johnson, and her parents are played by Daniel Stern and Illeana Douglas. Kevin Pollack and character actor Jere Burns, as well as Tracy Scoggins all have parts here. This is pretty impressive for such a small movie and probably elevate the acting to another level. Riley's parents have some ridiculous dialogue and not many actors could have pulled it off. The filmmaker's have a good try at doing something different. The two parts of the movie work well individually but because they try to stand on their own, they don't mesh as well as they could. The ending, however, is great, and deserves mention. It's not the most logical one, but it's the best ending out there for a fat, balding, pathetic 40-year-old pizza delivery guy.
Video
2.35:1 high-definition 1080p 24/fps widescreen, using the VC-1 codec. The movie was shot on digital video, and it shows. The video quality will never be very particularly good. The colors are adequate, but muted by both the transfer and the movie's lighting. The black levels are pretty poor, and contrast not very deep. On the plus side, there aren't any signs of digital manipulation. That's about all good I can say about the transfer.
Audio
The movie comes with an English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track, as well as Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks in English, Spanish and Portuguese. The movie is mostly very low-key and the lossless track keeps the atmosphere as best it can. The sound is pretty low-fi, though there's no hissing or muffling. The mixing is pretty simple, as well, failing to create the best possible atmosphere. The rear speakers aren't used as much as they could be, and though the low-end frequencies are pretty much forgotten, the movie really doesn’t need them. The dialogue, however, is always clear, as are all the other elements. English, English (HoH), French, Spanish, Chinese and Portuguese subtitles are here.
Extras
Though the DVD had a nice assortment of extras, Warner strangely decided to scrape them all away and leave this disc completely bare.
Overall
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