After the gigantic success of the first "otto" movie, fans had to wait for nearly years, before the next of the series was ready. It was not as fresh as the first feature, but the concept was the same, even if the script department had obviously several problems to remain on the high joke level. The concept was the same: Otto, the chaotic young man from east frisia owes a lot of rent, so he has to work for the owner of his apparment house. He loses his heart to a young girl on the fourth floor, not realising, that the owners daughter is seriously in love to hin. But the girl of his dreams only loves "Amboss", a dumb "Arnie"-Clone. So Otto has to do a lot of dirty work, tries to win Gabi Droesels heart, must keep the depressive cat of a professor alive and defeats the qualities of Amboss... Once more, the plot is only thin, but around there are many jokes, chaotic scenes, musical interlude, advertising parodies and more. Best bits are surely the song Otto sings in front of the elevator doors, an ice-skating number, the magnificent-seven-misspell-scene. Waalkes pokes fun on a gruesome German pop group (Modern Talking), parodies several Schwarzenegger-like movies (Amboss the controlator), some Levis-Jeans-Spots and a famous ice-cream-commercial. There is further the "When a stranger calls"- gag in new color and the wordplay is sometimes very good. Unfortunately, the film suffers from too much product placement and Otto himself begins to act silly and infantile too often in the movie. But overall and concerning the following three films, this one is funny enough for most of his length.
Review of Otto - Der Neue Film
Otto - Der Neue Film
(1987)
Not quite as fresh as the predecessor, but still a funny series entry!
22 February 2006