The grindhouse genre received an addition at this year’s Sundance film festival with Jason Eisener’s HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN. I recently had a chance to view the film, and I have to say I want that hour and a half of my life back. Seriously, I don’t know what Eisener was thinking, but this film is terrible, don’t waste your time. Yes, grindhouse films are supposed to be a bit campy, and have kind of a b-movie feel, and be full of gore and nudity and all, but they’re also supposed to have some kind of social or artistic value. HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN took being a grindhouse film way too seriously and actually IS a b movie. So, if you’re looking to be bombarded by images of senseless gore and bull****, this film is for you, but it honestly has little to no real social value.
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The plot of HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN is ridiculous. A mysterious hobo rides into a small American town on a train with dreams of finally settling down and starting a landscaping business, only to find that the town he has come to is rife with corruption and is under the control of a crime boss known as “the Drake.” After witnessing the depths of the town’s depravity, and having a chance encounter with a young prostitute, the hobo decides to take matters into his own hands, and starts dispensing social justice with a shotgun. Oh, but this angers the Drake, who begins a campaign of retaliation to retain control of the town. The Drake’s two sons get involved, burning a school bus full of children alive and killing the local news anchor to get the town to turn against the hobo. Luckily he’s able to have another chance encounter with the friendly, young prostitute, and she helps his hobo ass. Then everything gets serious. Seriously dumb. It is a dumb ass plot line, with dumb ass character development, dumb ass dialogue, cheap thrills, and a dumb ass conclusion. This movie is for dumb asses, and I am not a dumb ass, so I feel insulted.
The ONLY thing that makes HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN at all worthwhile is Rutger Hauer’s performance as the hobo. Hauer pulls the hobo off well, and shines like a diamond in the rough, bringing a gritty reality to the character and the movie. Molly Dunsworth is alright as Abby the prostitute, but not all that believable. And, Gregory Smith playing the Drake’s son, Slick, does a good job of being a totally evil little punk. However, Nick Bateman needs to go back to martial arts, because he is a terrible actor. Indeed, most of the acting in the film is awful, but with the story they’re portraying, I don’t blame the actors.
The technical aspects of the film are done well enough. I didn’t notice any problems with the sound editing, and the dialogue was audible throughout most of the scenes. The cinematography in the film is alright. I can see Eisener used some interesting pan and zoom techniques to highlight certain depraved events and facial expressions which added to the film’s eerie feel. Technicolor did a good job on the coloring also, which added even more to the bizarre reality, and RED Mysterium X cameras were used to shoot the film. Some of the edits were choppy and a little amateur, but that could have been on purpose. All in all, the b-movie grindhouse appearance was achieved with great success, it just didn’t have the story to match the production value. I give HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN 1.5 out of 5 stars.