It seems odd that while no one went out to see the Tarantino/Rodriguez experiment Grindhouse, everyone seems hot on fleshing out full films from the despicably fake trailers that ran between its double features. Hobo with a Shotgun, the second adaptation of those crazy-ass trailers, is a gory masterpiece. Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner) plays the titular crazy hobo who arrives by train in Hope City, desperate to save up enough money to start a lawn mowing business, only to find Hope City isn’t what he thought it would be. Local crime lord and straight-from-a-seventies-game-show-host Drake (Brian Downey) and his two sons, Slick (Gregory Smith) and Ivan (Nick Bateman), rule the town by fear in the most absurd and masochistic displays of violence you will ever see committed to screen.
After saving the life of Abby, a local prostitute (Molly Dunsworth), Hobo finds that the local police are on Drake’s payroll. The crime lord’s sons pin him to a table, carve SCUM into his chest, and toss him into the dumpster for dead. Eating a mouth full of glass for a snuff director, he winds up with the last bills he needs to start his lawn mowing business, but instead decides to clean up the streets- with a shotgun! Killing starts now, go!
This isn’t the goriest movie I’ve ever seen but I’d say it’s number two, with acts of violence I didn’t see coming (like bashing a skull between two bumper cars or killing a school bus full of kids with a flame thrower). There were times throughout the movie that made me cringe and just when you think they’ll stop, they just keep going. There were some really funny one-liners in the movie: at one point Abby tells the hobo that he can’t change the world with a shotgun. His reply? “It’s the only thing I know.”
The movie’s definitely not for everyone, but it’s a good violent throwback movie that won’t disappoint. When the credits rolled, all of us started to laugh at the ‘Holy shit!’ spectacle of it all.
It’s available in the US on Amazon, iTunes, Xbox Live, etc and will be available this summer in the UK.
Co-written by Nick.
Don't Keep This a
Secret, Share It