Hobo with a Shotgun (2011) Magnet/Action-Horror-Comedy RT: 87 minutes No MPAA rating (extreme bloody graphic violence and gore, pervasive language including sexual references, nudity, implied pedophilia, drug use) Director: Jason Eisener Screenplay: John Davies Music: Alexander Rosborough Cinematography: Karim Hussain Release date: May 6, 2011 (US) Cast: Rutger Hauer, Molly Dunsworth, Brian Downey, Gregory Smith, Nick Bateman, Robb Wells, Jeremy Akerman, David Brunt, Pasha Ebrahimi, George Stroumboulopoulos. Box Office: $703,372 (US)
Rating: ****
The title Hobo with a Shotgun says it all. It’s a blood-soaked revenge picture about a hobo (Hauer, Blade Runner) armed with a shotgun. It’s essentially a modern urban-set spaghetti western. He comes riding into town like Clint Eastwood (on a freight train instead of a horse) while Ennio Morricone-like music- the theme from the German horror film Mark of the Devil to be exact- plays over the soundtrack. He doesn’t like what he sees and decides to clean the place up. Just call him the Hobo with No Name.
The city is named Hope Town, but you won’t find any in the filthy, trash-ridden streets ruled over by vicious crime lord “The Drake” (Downey, Snow Angels). It’s a hellhole populated by gangsters, hookers, pimps, pushers, perverts and other criminal types. The few decent people residing there live in fear of The Drake and his two sadistic sons, psychotic Slick (Smith, Small Soldiers) and dimwitted Ivan (Bateman, The Matchmaker’s Playbook). One thing’s for sure; they do know how to make an indelible first impression. Hobo, along with many townspeople, look on as they force a “traitor” into a manhole, place a barbed wire noose around his neck, attach the other end to a pickup and peel out, decapitating the man and showering the streets in a geyser of blood while a scantily clad moll dances in it.
All Hobo wants from life is to get enough money to buy a used lawnmower so he can start his own business. He never dreamed he’d become an avenging angel, but that’s exactly what happens after an unfortunate experience with Slick and the corrupt local police in defending a hooker with a heart of slightly tarnished gold, Abby (Dunsworth, Septic Man). Bloodied and left for dead in a trash dumpster, he seeks out Abby who takes him home and cleans him up.
Hobo manages to raise the needed cash by committing degrading acts for a “bumfight” filmmaker. He’s in the pawnshop about to buy the mower when a trio of dirtbags burst in to rob the place. After a moment’s consideration, Hobo grabs a shotgun and blows them away. Realizing he’s the only one willing to take a stand against the crime plaguing Hope Town, he buys the shotgun and hits the streets looking to restore law and order in a place of lawlessness and disorder. Of course, The Drake doesn’t like this and sends his sons to deal with the vigilante.
Let’s talk about the main selling point of Hobo with a Shotgun, the extremely bloody violence that permeates this darkly comedic action-horror tale. WOW! Is this thing ever bloody! It’s like a ride through an abattoir guided by Leatherface. People are shot (at close range), beaten, stabbed, sliced, tortured, disemboweled and literally blown to pieces. Some of the deaths are quite creative. A guy literally spills his guts after being cut open by a razor blade-bound baseball bat. Another has his head crushed by a bumper car. One poor bastard has his penis shot off. Children in a school bus are burned alive with a flamethrower. A pedophile dressed as Santa Claus has his head blown off. A TV reporter is impaled by an ice skate. In addition, a woman’s head is nearly severed with a hacksaw and somebody’s hand is pulverized by a lawnmower. The carnage reaches its crescendo with an orgy of violence involving criminals, corrupt cops, citizens and a pair of armor-clad demons called “The Plague”. Of course, Hobo is at the center of it all. Before you reach for a barf bag, know that all of it is so OTT that you can’t take it too seriously.
I thoroughly enjoyed Hobo with a Shotgun. Directed by Jason Eisener (he did segments for The ABCs of Death and V/H/S/2), it’s a fantastic homage to exploitation movies. As a matter of fact, it’s based on one of the faux trailers in the Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino collaboration Grindhouse. Like Machete, it’s both trashy and brilliant. It has all the essential elements- the nutty overacting, the OTT action and violence, the silly dialogue and the super-slimy bad guys. It’s so insane, you’d think it was made and performed by inmates of an asylum under the direction of Torquemada. At the same time, it moves fast and tells a cool story. Maybe Eisener takes it a bit too far with the addition of the mechanical killers, but what the hell. If you going for OTT, why not go all the way?
The late Hauer, in his last great performance (he died in ’19), is awesome in the title role. As always, he’s the perfect choice to play an unhinged character like Hobo. He gets off great lines like, “I’m cleaning the streets of s*** and the smell makes me sick!”, “I’m gonna sleep in your bloody carcasses tonight!” and “You and me are goin’ on a car ride to Hell. You’re riding shotgun!” He also gets to deliver a Shakespeare-level monologue to a group of newborns in a maternity ward. That alone is award-worthy. Downey does crazy good work as the evil crime lord. He hams it up to such a level, you want to douse him in Dijon mustard. He gets some good lines too- e.g. “When life gives you razor blades, you make a baseball bat…. covered in razor blades.” Dunsworth is also great as Abby, the most sympathetic and bad ass prostitute this side of Angel.
As you know, I love a movie like Hobo with a Shotgun. It’s a four-star movie! I know what you’re thinking. Has Movie Guy 24/7 lost his damn mind? Why would he award a movie like this his highest rating? I’ll tell you why. It never pretends to be anything other than what it is, an exploitation movie that belongs on a triple bill at a scuzzy downtown movie theater (if they still existed). I might ask how you can’t love a movie with a title like Hobo with a Shotgun. IT’S FREAKING AWESOME! That is all.
BTW, if you want to see something really cool, look up the alternate ending on YouTube. I wish they had left it in. It ups the crazy factor by a significant margin.
