Wednesday 22 June 2011

Review - Hobo With a Shotgun (2011 - Dir. Jason Eisener)


Based on a fake trailer from Grindhouse that I can't actually remember, this follows in the same grindhouse tradition. It sets out its stall from the off with its grain-o-vision and blurred opening credits


Rutger Hauer is in it. It's called Hobo With a Shotgun. Either you want to watch it from that or you don't. It is a lot of fun and I did laugh at quite a few moments of blood spillage. Mr Hauer is fantastically grizzled as the titular Hobo who has a grudge to bear against the local crimelord. His relationship with prostitute Abby (Molly Dunsworth) is the backbone of the film that the gore hangs off. Literally, most of the time. One of my favourite images is a tooled up, A-team style, Abby leaping on to a prone bad fella. Who doesn't love a helmet wearing lady with a shotgun and lawnmower shield combo?


If you call a film Hobo With a Shotgun you really need to explore the effects of a shotgun on the human body. The first three kills are all shots to the stomach. Disappointing. I want to see:
1. Shot to the stomach.
2. Shot to the shoulder removing an arm with accompanying fountain of blood.
3. Head shot removing a large portion of the head, if not all.
More variety definitely needed.




It's always a shame when characters have been built up to be total nutters and then aren't that harsh. The Plague come with a reputation. Again, I wanted to see them rip into people in Braindead levels of comedy gore. But again, you get three repetitions of a hanging manouvre. I don't know whether it was budget or they just neshed it, but for this type of film they needed to push the gore.




Saying all that, any film that contains homeless people being netted can't be all bad. I am in no way advocating the netting of homeless people but it is funny in the context of the film, a bit like the scenes of weird looking children being netted in The Garbage Pail Kids. Funny. But I wouldn't do it in real life.


Well worth a watch if you like the trailer. Just don't expect The King's Speech (although that could possibly benefit from some more shotgun involvement).
7/10
evlkeith




If you like this you could also try:
Braindead, Bad Taste, Planet Terror, Zombie Flesh Eaters, Zombie Holocaust.



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