Review: Hobo With a Shotgun

Rutger Hauer is the title hobo, sick of the violence, sleaze, and corruption in the ironically named Hope Town where even the local law is depraved. Finally deciding to do something about it, Hobo makes an enemy of local gangster The Drake (Brian Downey, from TV’s bizarre “Lexx”) and his psycho idiot sons (Gregory Smith and Nick Bateman, both awful), after saving a hooker (Molly Dunsworth). Armed with a shotgun, the hobo decides to wipe the streets clean of Drake, his family, and all the other scumbags in town. It’s Howard Beale time! (Yes, I did just paraphrase John Singleton’s “Shaft”. I feel no shame).

 

In the grand “Grindhouse” tradition of “Machete” comes this profane, splatter-filled 2011 full-length expansion of the fake trailer that won a competition and was slotted into the Canadian theatrical screening of the Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino double bill film. Directed by Jason Eisener (EP of the fun post-apocalyptic 80s-era throwback “Turbo Kid”, creator of TV’s often riveting wrestling documentary series “Dark Side of the Ring”) and scripted by John Davies (who wrote segments of horror anthologies “The ABCs of Death” and “V/H/S 2”) it’s exactly the film it sets out to be and will be enjoyed by an extremely limited audience. I am one such audience member, even though if this film were in any way serious I’d actually be completely intolerant to its very right-wing, Reagan-era pro-vigilante politics POV. I was in on the joke enough to find it funny in a sicko way. With tongue firmly planted in cheek one can sit back and enjoy the ultra-violent ride. But that ‘one’ probably refers to the 1% of the population the film is aimed at. All others are forewarned, you’re gonna hate this. This was the film I thought “Mandy” was going to be, instead of an unendurable arty bore.

 

Rutger Hauer was the best thing in almost every film he ever appeared in, and that includes a heck of a lot of direct-to-video bullshit. Here he does genuinely good work in a semi-spoof of the kind of B-grade action cinema that he made a living off for decades, whether in some of his best films like “The Hitcher” and “Blind Fury” or more forgettable works like “Wanted: Dead or Alive”, “Salute of the Jugger”, “Omega Doom”, and “Surviving the Game”. Hauer’s casting here is essential and inevitable, it almost feels like the bulk of his career had led him to something like this. It’s genuinely one of his best-ever performances in a career full of great turns if you ask me. He also looks to be having a whale of a time. The glee on his face delivering the hard-boiled catch phrases and ultra-violence is priceless. He gets one particularly choice speech delivered to a bunch of newborn babies that’s hard to forget. Other performances are actually amateurish and dreadfully irritating, save a wildly over-the-top but amusing Brian Downey as the chief villain. Yes, it’s a big performance but unlike the other actors in the cast (especially those playing his sons), he makes it work for the most part. Imagine Strother Martin, Vincent Price, and the ‘I’d buy that for a dollar!’ guy from “RoboCop” combined and that’s basically Downey here.

 

The film is seriously violent, it has to be said. Some colour filters somewhat soften the massive amounts of gore, but still this is not going to appeal to a mainstream audience. Even if you enjoyed “Machete”, this might be a touch too much for you. Let me put it this way: A school bus full of kids gets tortured, and that’s the least violent thing in the film (It’s almost entirely off-screen). The filmmakers offer up one of the more oppressively bleak worldviews you’re ever likely to see here, with even the cops being corrupt and perverted. I think it does lessen the fun just a touch, but for the most part I was on board with this insane film.

 

I don’t think the transition from faux trailer to film is quite as successful as it was with “Machete”, but I still enjoyed this one for what it is. “Death Wish” re-imagined as an over-the-top, splatter horror/black comedy (think Troma meets early Peter Jackson), and for me that’s preferable. Rutger Hauer is ideal, Brian Downey is scenery-chewing fun. It’s a very loud and ultra-violent film and deliberately schlocky, but it’s short enough to not outstay its welcome…for an extremely limited audience.

 

Rating: B-