Okay, it’s been a long week. A really, really long week. Maybe it was the weather, or maybe it’s the fact that its summer, and being the responsible adults that we are, we’re working. Whatever the reason, it was a long week.
So, what better way is there to relax and blow off steam but to go rent some cheesy, B-rated movies?
Not sure what to rent? No worries, I’ve the movie for you. It’s called Otis.
This simplistic, yet surprisingly clever, funny, and disturbing movie has kidnapping, smart-aleck teenagers, unpredictably vengeful parents, and annoying FBI agents. Oh, and pizza. Lots of pizza.
When teenager Riley Lawson (Ashley Johnson, What Women Want) is kidnapped by the “Suburban Killer” (who calls all his victims Kim and wants to take them to the prom), no one really knows what they’re getting into. The parents are frustrated and angry, her brother Reed (Jared Kusnitz, Dance of the Dead – a great zombie movie) is a boy with a bloodlust, and Agent Hotchkiss (Jere Burns, Life Size) has an eighty percent recovery rate (well, he only recovered 60 percent of that one girl). And Otis, well, Otis (Bostin Chirstopher) just really, really wants a genuine 50s date to the prom.
What follows is the simplistic plot of Otis making Riley into the perfect “Kim” (and bothering her family by calling like he is her boyfriend) and the Lawson family steadily getting angrier and angrier with the world. And Otis, rather unfortunately, not only kidnapped a clever girl but one whose family was “slightly” crazy themselves.
Otis is set in suburbia gone awry (or maybe it’s just realistic…) with reporters and FBI ag
ents who’re tactless, families who make their own law, and serial killers who only want a date.
With twisted and dark humor, not to mention dialogue and plot turns, Otis (directed by Tony Krantz) is a definite film for people who like obscure black comedies (or, horror-comedies). It’s in rank with Dance of the Dead and Botched. It’s also a great way to blow off steam from a long week. You laugh, you yell, and you cringe.
Oh, and people with queasy stomachs, you only need to worry about one scene. There’s also no nudity, sex and drugs are only alluded to, but there is quite a lot of profanity.
Other than that, this movie is delightfully disturbing and won’t soon be forgotten.
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