HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN (2011) ****
Hobo with a Shotgun started life as a fan made fake movie trailer for a contest promoting Grindhouse. It won and it was so beloved that someone actually gave the filmmakers money to make a full length feature, starring the Legendary Rutger Hauer no less! The result is a film that owes more to the Troma movies of the 80’s (it would make a great double feature with Surf Nazis Must Die) than the drive-in 70’s flavor of Grindhouse. That is to say, it’s pretty fucking awesome.
Hauer stars as the titular Hobo who rides the rails to “Fuck Town”, a place that’s ridden with crime. After the Hobo sees too many innocents die, he decides to do something about it and starts shotgunning the shit out of people. That pisses off the local kingpin who puts a bounty on the Hobo that’s so high that everyone is soon gunning for his head.
In short, Hobo with a Shotgun is a blast. The wall-to-wall carnage contained within includes (but is not limited to): Decapitated heads, crushed heads, exploding bodies, death by ice skate, human piñatas, blown off dicks, and my personal favorite; stump stabbing. Seriously folks, there is a whole lot of awesome shit that goes down in a fast-paced 90 minutes.
There’s a lot more here than just gore and death to keep you entertained though. I think my favorite part of the flick were the two iron clad bounty hunters called “The Plague” who go around hanging people via a customized harpoon gun. These guys are so sure that they’ll get their man that they drag a coffin behind their motorcycles for their potential victims. You’ve got to respect that level of confidence. Plus, these guys somehow managed to capture that octopus from the Watchmen comic, which explains why it wasn't in the Watchmen movie.
In the center of all this mayhem is Rutger Hauer. This is definitely one of the man’s all-time best performances. The key to his character is that he’s never in on the joke. Hauer plays things very straight and his off-kilter intensity is a good counterbalance to the outrageous over-the-top antics of the villains.
And speaking of the bad guys, I have to give them props for their plan to kill the Hobo. Out of desperation, they declare open season on him and offer citizens a reward for his head. Naturally, the townsfolk refuse to turn themselves into criminals and make a stand against the villains. I liked the way that director Jason Eisener handled these scenes. They work a lot better the similarly themed ferry boat sequence in The Dark Knight. Since Hobo proves Eisener knows his way around the vigilante milieu, I’d say give him the reigns of the Batman franchise if Christopher Nolan ever wants to step down.
Predictably, Hauer gets the best line of the movie: “First let me wipe this guy’s ass of my face!” But the biggest laugh of the movie comes from a newspaper headline that reads: “Hobo stops begging. Demands change.”
Hobo with a Shotgun blasts its way to the Numero Uno spot of The Video Vacuum Top Ten Films of the Year.