HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN (2010) ROB

I love when a movie I'm looking forward to actually lives up to the hype. I love when a movie I'm looking forward to is so obscure, so ridiculous that it's impossible not to catch wind and be picked up into the mainstream. Hobo With a Shotgun has done both of these things, surpassing my expectations and being seen by some friends that I would have never expected it'd find it's way to and it makes complete sense..

We start with an obvious, albeit awesome homage to the exploitation films of the 70's and 80's in the form of a title sequence where we meet our hobo (Rutger Hauer) as he rides in on a train to "Scum Town"(formerly Hope Town, but crossed out with spray paint and modified) and stares into the sky. The score immediately reminded me of the old 70's Japanese action flicks ie Lady Snowblood and Shogun Assassin and it sets the mood perfectly. Anyway, Hobo makes his way into Scum Town and is immediately met with images of prostitution, violence and enough bizarre debauchery to make a Detroit ghost shudder in his sheets. Through a series of fucked occurrences and a barrage of strange character introductions hobo makes friends with a kindly prostitute and comes to the decision that he's going to clean up the town and wipe the scum off the streets with a pump-action shotgun.

So, yeah, the plot has been done before and it's nothing near complex, but what it lacks in complexity it makes up for in heart and a very ambitious set of characters. Through the course of the running time I couldn't help but think this would have been an awesome comic book; The characters are animated and bat shit crazy, good or bad, and it screams all the characteristics of a great, dark adult comic. There is a pair of "bad guys" in the film that goes by the name The Plague, they're armored in strange metal suits and they call what looks like an abandoned, modified mental hospital home. I'd have to say they were my favorite part of the hour and a half running time, when they come on screen they emanate this 80's vibe that I haven't seen captured in any modern film since that decade, they're just so fucking cool.

I don't know what else to say about this film. It's got A LOT going on and I haven't even began to touch all the bases. It does have some pacing issues that to be honest added to the vibe of an exploitation film (There is always that slow, recuperating point where they try to add a heart and some exposition to the main character), but it just didn't really work for me. Director Jason Eisener directed, edited and took part in the writing of this film and it carries a style unmatched by even Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse features, but I think he could have trimmed this down with the more frenetic style of editing that we see only in small moments throughout the film, but that is my only problem with the film.

Hobo With a Shotgun is an over the top gory homage to trash film. It's beautiful and charming in it's own weird little way and with only one minor complaint it will have a place in my collection as soon as it's released on DVD.

4.5/5

Please expand on THE PLAGUE......