Film Review #13: Hobo With A Shotgun

     I've finally found time to dust those DVD's off that have been sitting on the shelf for a couple weeks, I opted to start off with a little bit of Canadian grindhouse cinema...

     Hobo With A Shotgun came to be after Robert Rodriguez and SXSW started a contest to make a "fake" Grindhouse movie trailer and they would make a legit movie out of the best one, similar to the "fake" Machete trailer at the beginning of Tarantino and Rodriguez Grindhouse double bill project that became a Hollywood film. In the end this trailer was enough to get a movie made after being crowned the winner of the contest.

     The premise for this film is simple, you see there is this hobo (played by Rutger Hauer) and he gets a hold of this shotgun... Okay I suppose it's a little more complex than that, but barely so. The hobo arrives in town and notices it's occupied by pimps, prostitutes, coke addicted bum fight entrepreneurs and Santa Claus impersinating child molesters. This doesn't sit well with our homeless hero and after window shopping for a lawnmower (so he can start a grass cutting company to make something of himself, of course) he witness's 3 robbers try to strong arm rob the store by threatning beautiful and innocent shoppers, thus forcing the hobo to act, with a vengeance, grabbing a shotgun and shooting the 3 robbers.

      No one really cares too much about the death of the robbers, however latter on that night when he saves a prostitute (who claims to be a teacher) from a dirty cop who was trying to get a bj by using force and not paying.the nightwalker for her services. So safe to say the hobo feels it necessary to introduce him to his shotgun, and I can assure you together they had a blast. So after saving the girl, they begin an unlikely friendship together. Someone however is not a fan of the hobo and his friend and that's Drake, the clean cut evil crime boss that runs the town along with his 2 sons, Slick and Ivan. Drake makes it his business to have the hobo brought down offering up rewards of cash, coke and girls for his head.

     After all is said and done, Hobo With A Shotgun is a rather fun romp through Scum City. It's espescially fun if you're a Canadian, everywhere you look, you see a Candian icon; even Strombo shows his face! Being a grindhouse movie however if you aren't a fan of gore and buckets and buckets and even more buckets of blood this movie might not be for you. As far as the story goes, well I've touched on this already, it's not terribly smart, but it doesn't have to be. The title of the film is a joke, which tells you, the viewer, to not look too far into this.

    It's a gleeful, gory mess of a movie, and providing you don't have a weak stomach, you should be able to enjoy this film, as far as Grindhouse fare goes this is on the upside of them, if not near the top. However as far as exploitation thrillers (they are not the same thing FYI!) this is middle of the pack, so if this sounds like your type of movie fare then by all means do yourself a favour and watch it. If you're on the fence, watch it anyway so at least you can make an opinion one way or the otherand when you do, let me know, I love hearing your thoughts.