“Hobo with a Shotgun” (dir. Jason Eisener)
Grown from a fake exploitation trailer contest held by the South by Southwest festival to promote 2007’s Tarantino/Rodriguez collaboration “Grindhouse,” Jason Eisener’s “Hobo with a Shotgun” (now on DVD/Blu-ray and Netflix) is demented, gory, outrageous and thoroughly enjoyable. Anchored by a genuinely good lead performance by Rutger Hauer, the film is a vivid neo exploitation flick that goes some truly nutso places, but never wears out its welcome.
The titular hobo hops off a train to plant his bindle in Hope Town, a nightmare city run by snarling gangster The Drake (Brian Downey) and his vicious wayfarer wearing sons (Gregory Smith and Nick Bateman). Hope City is a hellhole whose streets are infested with drugs, gangs and perverted mall Santas. As would be expected in such a scenario, the city’s cops are just as the dirty as its criminals.
The hobo’s past is shrouded in mystery. His only desire is to raise enough money to purchase a lawnmower from a pawn shop. When he’s directly confronted with the viciousness of the city’s criminals, the hobo forgoes the lawnmower and picks up a shotgun to become a vigilante as ruthless as the scum he hunts. If the title didn’t already indicate it, it’s a fairly straightforward plot, albeit one with some insane flourishes.
The bearded and disheveled Hauer is really nothing less than riveting here. He never plays it broad, delivering his lines with complete conviction. Whether he’s blowing a creep’s wang off with his trusty shotgun or delivering a monologue on the futility of hope to a room of screaming newborns, he commands your attention. This is undeniably his show. Molly Dunsworth also more than holds her own as Abby, the prostitute who hooks up with the hobo on his quest to cleanse Hope City.
“Hobo with a Shotgun” constantly tries to top itself by devising ever more inventive routes of decapitation and increasingly disgusting one-liners. Featuring torrents of bright red, beyond fake movie blood, the film often feels like a live action version of “The Itchy and Scratchy Show.” This is definitely not a bad thing in my book.
To Eisener and writer John Davies’ credit, “Hobo with a Shotgun” constantly creeps up to the edge of being too ridiculous and self-aware, but never falls over. The filmmakers establish a tone, twisted though it may be, early on and maintain it for the film’s duration. For a film whose final act involves a league of robot monsters called The Plague, a giant man-eating octopus and a woman stabbing a villain with her mangled arm bone, that’s definite praise.
Be sure to stick around through the credits for the "Hobo with a Shotgun" theme song "Run with Us," a delirious slice of '80s pop that also served as the theme for the Canadian cartoon "The Raccoons." Really.
Marc's Grade: B+
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