A Hobo (Rutger Hauer) arrives in Hope Town looking for a fresh start, a chance to buy a lawn mower and start his own business. But Hope Town is anything but hopeful: under the grip of The Drake (Brian Downey) and his sons Slick (Gregory Smith) and Ivan (Nick Bateman), people in the city are arbitrarily brutalized and executed. Violence runs rampant, the police have no interest in taking down The Drake, and Hobo finds his only ally in prostitute Abby (Molly Dunsworth). When a pawn shop robbery forces Hobo to choose between his lawnmower and a shotgun, he declares a one-man war on the town, but can he survive when The Drake orders all homeless people to be killed?When watching a film called Hobo with a Shotgun, one cannot be faulted for forming certain expectations about what one is going to get. Look at the poster to your right, for example: its retro "unfolded" image and "kitchen sink" approach of what you'll see in the film promises a kitschy, uber-violent experience, most likely verging on offensive with gobs of gore, drug use, and prerequisite gratuitous nudity. Sure enough, one would not be mistaken to think all this (and more) is on display in Hobo with a Shotgun, a title of such simplicity it reminds one of Snakes on a Plane. Hold that thought...
The film has an interesting history of its own: Hobo with a Shotgun was the winner of a contest to create your own fake trailer for Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse, and because the Blu-Ray took nearly three years to come out, Hobo with a Shotgun's presence on the disc was largely forgotten. Director Jason Eisener and writer John Davies pushed forward with their trailer, a YouTube sensation, and landed Rutger Hauer in the title role.
What began as this:
became this*:
and is now playing On Demand and on the Playstation Network, with a theatrical release in the near future.
Hobo with a Shotgun aims to be a throwback to the politically incorrect, exploitative "trash" films that made up the "video nasties" shelf at your local video store. Like Planet Terror, it goes for the gusto when it comes to ultra-violence; there are kills in this film the Cap'n has never seen before, and I'm no slouch when it comes to murder set-pieces. If Planet Terror was an homage to John Carpenter's 1980s output, then Hobo with a Shotgun is a throwback to the endless variations on Death Wish, particularly The Exterminator. It's also not far off from Rodriguez's own spin-off of Grindhouse, Machete.
If you're looking to get your quotient of "wrong" met, you're going to have a hard time finding it all packed into one film beyond Hobo with a Shotgun: pedophile Santa's, child endangerment, eviscerations, beheadings, hangings, castrations, broken limbs, crooked cops, people being burned alive, a "bumfights"-esque filmmaker, hiding in corpses, burning school buses, ice skate fights, and the Plague - a pair of killers dressed head to toe in homemade armor hired to take out the Hobo. At one point, for reasons best unexplained, the Hobo watches as one member of the Plague fights an octopus. Ivan and Slick are, for reasons also unexplained, 80s themed jock thugs, dressed in "prep" clothing with Tom Cruise slicked hair and a DeLorean.
While this might sound enticing, Hobo with a Shotgun makes the crucial mistake of being relentlessly downbeat from beginning to end. As a result, we as an audience aren't allowed to revel in the trashy violence, cheesy dialogue, or over-the-top performances. Instead, the cumulative effect is mostly a downer; what was fun in Planet Terror or ridiculous in Machete is instead dour, hopeless, and devoid of any of the thrills and chills implied in Hobo with a Shotgun's concept. There are a few chuckles to be had (mostly from the newspaper headlines, my favorite of which was "Hobo Stops Begging, Demands Change") but I'd have a hard time justifying putting Hobo with a Shotgun on during a party. Other than grossing the faint of heart out, its really only going to be a buzz kill. While it isn't boring like, say, Snakes on a Plane, the incessant profanity and unyielding cruelty do damper a "party" atmosphere.
The film's downbeat ending isn't likely to make it a hit with midnight movie crowds, but I think on a one-by-one basis, Hobo with a Shotgun will entertain enough gorehounds and retro-junkies to justify recommending a rental, just don't make it the centerpiece of your own "grindhouse night."
The film is well shot, reasonably well acted by its mostly unknown cast, and has enough going for it that I imagine many of you will enjoy it on some level, but its pedigree as an off-shoot of Grindhouse might lead people to expect a different movie than what you get. Then again, since so many people didn't know Hobo with a Shotgun even existed, you might not have the same expectations I did. While it's no The House of the Devil or Black Dynamite, Hobo with a Shotgun does try to capture a particular slice of genre exploitation, and it's mostly successful which is better than a lot of what's out there.
* If you were wondering, the original Hobo, David Brunt, appears in what amounts to a cameo as a crooked cop.
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