Sunday, April 10, 2011

Hobo With A Shotgun


More like "Hobo With a ShotFUN"! Pure. Fucking. Insanity. I don't even know where to begin. Hobo With A Shotgun is what I can only assume a bad acid trip would be like, only set to film. This movie is over the top in almost every way, especially the gore and violence. Rutger Hauer is at his "Clint Eastwoodiest" here as the titular Hobo, and is almost lost in the shuffle a bit amidst the gangsters, hookers, and demonic shogun samurai assassins. I'll say that again, demonic shogun samurai assassins.

As to be expected with so much madness taking place, there really isn't much of a plot (which seems to be a bit of a trend here lately with my movie choices, eh?). A Hobo rides into town on a train, gets tired of seeing all the rampant street crime and decides to go all vigilante with a pump shotgun he picks up in a Pawn Shop. His actions are noticed by the city's "kingpin of cime" known as The Drake, and he sets his gang upon bringing an end to the Hobo's campaign to clean up the streets.


Hobo With a Shotgun has some of the most disturbing content that I've seen since A Serbian Film. Don't want to  spoil too much here, but it's difficult to talk about the movie without giving away some things. Just to give you the general idea as to what you're getting into though, if the thought of someone stepping onto a school bus full of elementary school kids and cutting loose with a flamethrower bothers you, then maybe this isn't your kind of movie. At some points in this film, there's so much blood spraying about, you'll swear you're watching some sort of Asian splatter flick, ala The Machine Girl or Tokyo Gore Police, only it's done in good old American grindhouse fashion. Limbs flying, entrails spilling, shotgun blasts to the balls,  head's being blown apart, hacksaws to the neck, razor blade bats, Hobo With a Shotgun has all this and more.



If at any point you were reading this and thought I was trying in any way to be negative, you've misread me. I absolutely loved this movie. I was a bit shocked at the school bus scene, but everything here is done in such an over the top fashion that I couldn't help but laugh. In fact, most of what's going on is so ridiculous that it's hard to get offended, and laughter is the only reaction I had to it. If you're looking for a little bit of "holy shit that's awesome" and like your movies "the bloodier, the better" then I definitely recommend giving Hobo With a Shotgun a watch. I was highly entertained, and once the credits started to roll, I was ready to go back to the beginning and watch it again. That kind of thing doesn't happen near enough these days.

1 comment:

Zombie said...

So does he ask for change at any point as he is shotgunning people?