Reviewed by

Christopher Armstead

The headline screams as the body count piles up: "Hobo Stops Begging: Demands Change!" and there you go, ‘Hobo with a Shotgun’. Some friends asked me what this movie, ‘Hobo with a Shotgun’ was about. I inform them that the title is pretty much self-explanatory. It’s like asking ‘What is ‘Santa Clause is Coming to Town’ about. It’s about Santa coming to town. It’s about a Hobo with a Shotgun. They should probably do this for all movies. Instead of ‘Transformers’ just call it ‘Big Ass Robots’. Doesn’t get much simpler than that.

As we observe the stylized 1970’s themed opening credits for director Jason Eisener’s movie, we meet The Hobo, as played by a weathered and beaten Rutger Hauer, who has just rode in on a rail into Hope Town. Right now The Hobo doesn’t have a shotgun, just a shopping cart filled with bottles in what has to be the most miserable city in all of Canada. The Hobo is just pushing his cart, begging for

spare change when he is accosted by a guy with a man-hole cover locked around his neck looking for help. This poor soul would be the brother of Hope City Kingpin The Drake (Brian Downey) and uncle to The Drake’s psychopathic sons Slick (Gregory Smith) and Ivan (Nick Batemen). We don’t know exactly what Unk did to fall out of favor, but he’s wearing that manhole cover for a reason and soon, despite his incessant begging, he will not have a head.

The Hobo is disgusted by this but life goes on. Eventually The Hobo saves Abby (Molly Dunsworth), the pretty prostitute with a heart of gold, from an unfortunate end

at Slick’s hands, but there are repercussions to this selfless act and The Hobo gets f’d up but good. But still, he’s not trying to cause no trouble. And he’s gained a fast friend in Abby the pleasant whore.

Then one day while at the pawnshop trying to buy a lawnmower… it’s complicated… everything changes. This pawnshop stocks weapons next to lawnmowers and apparently it stocks them fully loaded. Irresponsible? Perhaps. Bad for the lowlifes that were robbing this shop, threatening to slice the throat of a customer and shoot a baby? Most def. And NOW the Hobo has a Shotgun.

So The Hobo has taken it upon himself to clean up this town, killing pimps, pedophiles, drug dealers, Bum Fight choreographers, white slavers… whoever… and the people are galvanized. The Drake can’t have the people of Hope Town having hope, no sir. The Drake instructs his sons, particularly Slick since Ivan is a bit of a retard, to retaliate against this galvanized populace, and they strike hard. Now the people who once cheered for The Hobo are out to kill The Hobo. Plus Drake and the boys killed George Stroumboulopoulus! It helps to either be Canadian or live up north like we do and get Channel 9 to feel the outrage of killing George Stroumboulopoulus.

But this hobo is a resourceful Sonofabitch. So resourceful that Drake has to call in The Plague to take him out. You don’t want to know who they are, just get out of their way if they come to your town. The Hobo will find some trouble with these guys with the only thing standing in the way of the Plague and doing the Hobo some critical harm is a Whore with a Shotgun. There you go… a sequel in the making.

As I told my boys, you probably have to be in the right frame of mind to extract all that ‘Hobo with a Shotgun’ has to offer. For instance after watching ‘Thor’ a general audience crowd pleaser, you don’t say… ‘You liked that? Well you’ll love ‘Hobo with Shotgun’. So just like it would be difficult to enjoy ‘Black Dynamite’ without a firm basis in Blaxploitation, it would be equally difficult to enjoy ‘Hobo with a Shotgun’ without a solid appreciation for seventies grindhouse, which I know you have.

Eiserner’s movie is ridiculously violent, completely over the top, cleverly scripted, campy fun. Setting a schoolbus full of Canadian kids on fire with a flamethrower shouldn’t be considered fun in a normal world, but since we didn’t see any amusement rides in Hope Town, that’s going to have to do.

Surprisingly, or should I say ‘Shockingly’, the story supporting this mindless mayhem of bloody madness is coherent and well crafted. The Hobo isn’t Dirty Harry or anything, just a regular cat like you and me who happens to smell real bad. That's all. Only through unfortunate and semi-logical circumstance is The Hobo forced to take arms and deliver justice, one shell at a time. Clearly with a title like ‘Hobo with a Shotgun’ we know we aren’t making ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and the cast of glorious over-actors is completely aware of this as they all try to out chew scenes from one another like hungry dogs after a meaty bone. And we also know that sometimes Mr. Hauer can appear slightly aloof in some of the movies he shows up for, seemingly bored at times, but The Hobo was engaged and delivered his plethora of speeches and spit vitriol at those who would do wrong to the good people of Hope Town with passion and vigor. Best performance we’ve seen from Rutger Hauer in an awful long time.

We’re not saying that ‘Hobo with a Shotgun’ is the second coming of ‘The Godfather’ or anything, and probably only a limited number of people on the planet earth can fully appreciate this insanity, but I appreciated it and wouldn’t mind so much if The Hobo made a second appearance. Maybe drop below the border to my town. Lord knows we could use the help.