Otis – Uncut (Raw Feed/Warner DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: D Feature: D
With
names like Daniel Stern, Illeana Douglas and Kevin Pollak, I wondered if Tony
Krantz’s Otis (2007) could rise
above being just another Horror Comedy where there was more than the usual
distressed, tired, bankrupt genre works that show the genre is running on fumes
and torture porn. Though this is not as
bad as what we have usually seen in the most graphic sense, it did nothing for
me and I never found it funny in any particular way.
The title
character is setting up his happy prom night, but co-writers Thomas Schnauz and
Erik Jendressen are so many miles away from doing this well (everything like
this seems downhill since Brian De Palma did Carrie anyhow) that it lands up all over the place and could be any
episode of the several CSI series
for that matter. Maybe this is funny to
them, but unless you are a very diehard fan of this corner of the genre, it is
blah and boring. Now, you can judge for
yourself.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is softer than I could have ever
expected and can’t wait to see how it compares to the planned Blu-ray
version. Color is inconsistent; detail a
joke and the overall shoot static and dull.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo with supposed Pro Logic surrounds
is about the same and a poorer recording than expected. Dialogue can be rough and forget about a
soundfield. Extras include trailers, an
extra scene, alternate ending, making of featurette and audio commentary by
Krantz and Jendressen.
- Nicholas Sheffo
