Reviewed: Hobo With A Shotgun [2011]

18 – 85mins – Action/Adventure/Crime – 22nd July 2011

So you may have a while to wait if your living in the UK for this one to hit your screens with it not due to be released until the middle of the summer but will it be worth the wait? The movie title kind of hints at what is in store if you go and watch this and in that regard it does not disappoint at all. Although you will have to wait a little bit before hobo and shotgun are united in a cacophony of blood and guts.

This movie is about a nameless hobo (Rutger Hauer) who rides the rail and arrives in a new town where the movies intentions are immediately made obvious. As he wanders the streets with robberies, prostitution, child abduction and hobo fighting occurring all around him, we are introduced to Drake (Brian Downey) the twister ruler of the town and his two sons, Slick (Gregory Smith) and Ivan (Nick Bateman). When father and sons decapitate their brother/uncle with a car, manhole cover and barbed wire rope we are left with the distinct impression that they rule the roost and are not to be messed with. After observing more obscenities Rutger comes to the aid of a prostitute in trouble, Abby (Molly Dunsworth) and they strike up an unlikely friendship as the movie progresses.

Now our hobo’s dream is but a simple one, he is intent on starting a honest gardening business and gathers his pennies to buy an old lawnmower. However fate conspires against him and he ends up with a pump action shotgun instead and sets about ridding the streets of crime (definitely makes for a better story!) With one liners as classic as:

Abby: “You can’t solve all the world’s problems with a shotgun!”

Hobo: “It’s all I know.”

it’s not hard to see the standard that this movie has set for itself! It doesn’t take itself seriously but then neither should you.

This movie is literally bubbling over with blood and gore left, right and centre and leaves little to the imagination. In fact I don’t think it leaves anything to the imagination whatsoever. Jason Eisener, in his first proper movie as a director, knows how to make a bloody scene even more gory than you could imagine. At times the gore looks quite convincing and at others less so but it comes so thick and fast that you won’t have time to worry yourself with small matters such as that.

If you don’t have a strong stomach them I definitely recommend that you give this one a miss and that also goes for people who think that this movie won’t involve children in the mayhem, because it does and on several occasions as well. I also liked the way in which the movie was done with old school technicolor style credits and titles making the movie feel it was made several decades ago rather than in 2011.

All in all this was what I was expecting but in some places it went further than I thought it would. If you are looking for a gore and guts fest with a couple of very cheesy one liners strewn about the place then this does it well and is for you. If your not then I’d give it a wide berth.

Rating: 6.6/10

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