HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN

HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN (2011)
US/CA
Directed by Jason Eisener

CAST:
Rutger Hauer - Hobo
Brian Downey - Drake
Gregory Smith - Slick

PLOT:
     A homeless vigilante blows away crooked cops, pedophile Santas, and other scumbags with his trusty pump-action shotgun.

REVIEW:
     When I first heard about this movie and that Rutger Hauer would be playing a pissed off hobo I got a little excited by it. This is the man that played Roy Batty and Harley Stone. Even when a movie sucks, he does great in it, usually. So the real question is how does he fair in this?

     Rutger Hauer did not disappoint in this one bit. It could be because he hasn't aged well, but those lines in his face helped him sell worn out. As for delivering his lines, he does what he knows and that's to chew up scenery like no one else in this movie and  yet at the same time he keeps it subdued. Even when speaking lines that are just nonsense, he still gives them weight that more than likely wasn't there in the script. I was just left wondering what bet he lost to have to star in this though. Molly Dunsworth's portrayal of Abby was quite surprisingly well done as well. Even though she does the usual horror movie female bit, her character gets stronger as the movie goes along. Yet the family members in the movie over due their roles by leaps and bounds. If they had tried to tone what they say down and not be so twitchy on camera, they would have probably be the most terrifying family on screen since the Firefly family. Instead we get performances that makes the Cookie Monster look like Oscar material.

     Now let's talk plot, or lack there of. Yep there is none. I don't consider a nameless hobo buying a shotgun instead of the lawnmower he wants a major plot point.  The movie did bring up interesting ideas, in fact the movie is filled with them, it just that they go nowhere or are dropped as soon as they are introduced. While Hauer did his best with what was giving to him by way of the script, he could only go so far with it. Needless to say the script felt like it was written by two drunkards that just watched to many Troma movies in a row. One thing that bothered me was that as each scene kept building up the violence then the end just fell flat considering what all went on before. It should also be noted that the movie introduces two of the most bad-ass characters I've seen in movies in a long time but does nothing with them. Just the small bit they showed of The Plague, they stole the whole movie as you're left wondering who and what they are the whole time and what it meant as the one surviving Plague says the girl has to take the place of the one she destroyed. Why is this? Well scriptwriters John Davies and Jason Eisener, why is this? No answer? Figures.

     But lets be honest, most people won't see this movie for the plot. They'll see it mostly for the violence. And man will they get their fill. The best way to describe it is if Takashi Miike made a Troma movie and had a decent budget to go with it but with a shotty script. The violence is so over the top that it will turn off some people, but those said people probably won't even watch this movie. I'm not going to lie and say I liked this movie, in fact I could care less about it after watching it. The humor felt too juvenile as the script tried to hard to be funny and contemporary, the end of the movie let me down as it could have done something different and more brilliant, and there was no character development at all. I'm all for violent movies, but is it too much to ask for a decent plot and story progression to go with it. 

BEST DEATH:
      Even though it's not a death, it would have to be the shortening of a body part by a fast spinning blade.

BEST LINE:
     Put the knife away or I’ll use it to cut welfare checks from your skin!

FUN FACTS:
     The movie was initially a fake trailer made for an international contest to promote the release of Grindhouse and is the second of the fake trailers made into a feature length movie.

     Slick and Ivan drive a Bricklin; a Canadian made car from the mid 70s.