HobowithaShotgun

Hobo with a Shotgun (2011)

Rutger Hauer stars as a Hobo who hops off a train in a corrupt town run by a homicidal maniac called Drake. The man and his sons own the police and because of that have no problem committing murder right out in the open. No one is brave or crazy enough to cross them, so crime runs rampant in the streets. The Hobo eventually saves a prostitute from one of Drake’s sons, but pays dearly for it. After being humiliated by a Bum Fight style “filmmaker” and seeing a baby have a gun shoved in it’s face he has enough. This is where the shotgun comes in. The rest of the movie is him gunning down criminals and cleaning up the streets. This pits him against not only the corrupt cops, but Drake and his boys as well.

I was so excited when the DVD for Hobo with a Shotgun showed up in the mail. I mean I had been watching trailers and hearing about it for so long that the anticipation was killing me. And normally that is a bad thing, because few movies live up to the hype. But Hobo is one of those movies that does.

The plot is solid and does a great job of setting up the mood of the movie. Almost from the moment the opening credits are done rolling we get some chaos, murder, and mayhem. The movie establishes it’s over the top violence and villains with Drake offing his brother in a very spectacular way. Literally the blood is spraying everywhere and you have a random bikini clad girl dancing in it! Yeah so it is obvious this isn’t going to be a subtle take on the breakdown of society… Into this chaotic situation is thrown the Hobo. Even though no one really sees him, or wants to anyway, he is the only one with a moral compass that tells him something is wrong. After trying to do the right thing (the police are crooked) he has all he can take and finally snaps. This leads to all kinds of shotgun related fun as he cleans up the streets, which is very entertaining to watch. The violence ends only when the end credits start.

So if this was nothing more then just a bad ass over the top action movie with an exploitation vibe to it I would have been very happy. But what I didn’t expect was the performance of Rutger Hauer. Sure the villain is over the top and many of the scenes are very cheesy and fun. But at the same time Hauer is really putting his heart and skills into the character. I never expected this but I really felt sorry for the Hobo. There is one scene where he humiliates himself to get the money to buy a lawnmower (his dream is to settle down and start a mowing business). The look on his face is so sad that it really grabbed me. And when he is finally goes to the store to buy the mower there is a robbery. Again you can see the internal conflict in him as he realizes his dreams aren’t going to come true and that he needs to do something else (he buys the shotgun). This is really a great performance.

I’ve talked about the action and violence, which leads me to the gore. We get a lot of the red stuff in this movie. From a severed head, to an electrocution, and lots of shot gunning there is something for everyone. My favorite from the movie has to be either the neutering via buckshot or the amputated hand via lawnmower! There might be some CGI in the movie, but it is done in a manner that it isn’t obvious. I was very satisfied by the effects.

Hobo with a Shotgun is everything that I wanted it to be and more. I’m not kidding when I say that it is one of my favorite movies. I will be watching and re-watching this one for years to come. I highly recommend picking it up.

4 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer