Hobo with a Shotgun

Hobo with a Shotgun

2011

Action

Rated: R

Running Time: 86 minutes

Starring: Rutger Hauer

Directed By: Jason Eisener

Rating: 5 out of 10

Outline

A hobo grabs a shotgun and takes on the criminals in a rundown city.

Review

I was hoping this movie was going to be about a German Sheppard with a shotgun (Sorry, Canadian TV show reference about the Littlest Hobo.) I didn’t want to merely like this movie; I wanted to LOVE it (Figuratively speaking.) It arguably has the best title of any film out there (The movie Snatch is also a classic.) So, I wanted to scream its praises as one of the best and bloodiest films that I have ever seen. Unfortunately, it was only okay. Hobo with a Shotgun is about, well, a hobo with a shotgun. This hobo is pissed off that the city he resides in is a cesspool of criminals and thieves. So he grabs a shotgun and blows away anyone who commits crimes against the law abiding citizens of the city.

The film starts out and we see the Hobo as he enters the city. It is a city without hope as it is equal parts chaos, to squalor. The roads are littered with trash, the buildings are derelict and boarded up, and the populace is ragged and malnourished. The city looks like Tim Burton and Andy Warhol smoked crack, and then designed Gotham together, but there was no Batman to defend it. This city is under the rule of powerful men and the police are powerless to intervene. The Hobo minds his own business as he tries to panhandle and collects pop cans for nickels. He witnesses the most violent of crimes imaginable. People are decapitated in the street, kids are snatched from the sidewalks by sexual deviants, and drug use is rampant. He is just trying to survive another day, but that is all about to change. He is tired of being bullied and being mistreated. He is tired of the police apathy and the misogynistic attitudes. Finally, he is tired of being poor. So he grabs a 20 gauge shotgun and takes matters into his own hands. The first half of the movie is nonsense but in a good way. He is angry and he is ready to go on a rampage, and that’s exactly what he does. Limbs get blown off and blood sprays like a fire hose from the gaping wounds. Heads got caved in and blood sprays like a geyser from the gaping wounds. Criminals die in every way imaginable and blood sprays like Mentos mixed with Diet Coke out of the gaping wounds. No one is safe from the Hobo’s gun and it is fun to watch.

Rutger Hauer plays the Hobo, and he is good as the old cantankerous bum. This isn’t the hardest of roles to pull off as he just has to be incessantly angry for the whole film. He is likable in a psychotic and twisted way, and his anger is palpable. His support cast is as bizarre as the city. The mob guys are campy 80’s gangsters, the prostitutes are pretty but angry, and the rest of the city snorts drugs out in the open. Long story short, the characters were weird.

As the movie continues it just got stranger and stranger, and it is in this strangeness that the movie lost me. Instead of the Hobo just killing people with his gun, the film takes a turn into the world of an acid trip gone wrong. People are subjected to eating glass, which is out of place. People get killed with a pair of hockey skates, which is out of place. Organs and intestines are removed without thought, which is out of place. Lastly, characters wearing comical looking armor arrive on the scene to cause murder and mayhem, which is out of place. The story is irrelevant as the Hobo shoots his way through the criminal element. As the film comes to a close, does the Hobo have the strength to save this city? Or will the criminals win out as usual? In conclusion, this film is entertaining in a bloody spray type of way, but you will tire of it around the midway point. The random violence and characters in this over exaggerated city were too much for my liking. This film was a collage of violence, and as such, was highly disorganized.

Director Jason Eisener shot this movie and even though I didn’t love this film, I respected his vision. He wanted this film to be bloody and violent, a throwback to the 70’s and 80’s, and I could see what he was going for. He just took it too far in every aspect. When the film needed a little normalcy he added more shock and awe. Because the film was so strange it never felt right to me and that is where the movie failed.

I cannot recommend this film because it just goes too far out there.

T Factor + If you are a fan of the Grindhouse type films then this could score higher on the rating scale.

T Factor – If you do not like violent films then this could score lower on the rating scale.

If you liked this film reel recommendation: Kill Bill movies, Grindhouse movies