Fanboy Comics Review: Hobo with a Shotgun

Fanboy Comics Creative Director Sam Rhodes reviews Rutger Hauer’s B-movie experience in Hobo with a Shotgun.

More a tone poem than a movie, this thoughtful, vibrant film takes the audience on the placid, yet emotionally vibrant, journey of a Hobo with a Shotgun. Actually, this movie IS a pretty incredible B-Movie along the lines of Robert Rodriguez’ Machete. Coming from the exploitation camp, it has a similar genesis, starting as a fake trailer and winning first prize in Rodriguez’ South by Southwest Grindhouse trailers contest. After accompanying select screenings of the Tarantino/Rodriguez Grindhouse double feature, it was then expanded into a feature length movie directed by Jason Eisener, written by John Davies, and starring Rutger Hauer in the title role. Also, like Machete, this movie will not be for everyone, as it capitalizes on the gratuitous use of violence, vulgarity, and nudity, even reveling in it, as it pays homage to exploitation flicks of the past.

The movie opens as Rutger Hauer rides into Hope City in a box car and quickly realizes that the city’s moniker is tragically ironic. Initially, he attempts to avoid the openly unrepentant atrocities including torture, prostitution, drug use, and even brutal murder, but, after watching a beautiful, young prostitute beaten for standing up against a gang member, the homeless man can no longer stand idly by and steps in to help. Upon bringing the gang member to the police, however, he becomes woefully aware that the corruption of Hope City has spread all the way up to the chief of police. We spend the rest of the movie following this Hobo on his solo campaign to clean up the city.

From the music to the gore, this flick pulls influences from great exploitation movies, B-movies, and spaghetti westerns alike, but, as much fun as it is, it didn’t quite have the control that you see in Planet Terror or Machete and, in that way, it may even be a more pure exploitation flick. It obviously had a micro-budget, and, though the special effects are always effectively cringe-inducing, they clearly didn’t have much money to spend on them. The acting is extremely quirky, over-the-top, and, at times, just bad, but it never gets in the way of the film. You can tell everyone had a lot of fun making this; however, it’s never self-indulgent. Chock full of blood, foul language, and some seriously quotable lines, Hobo with a Shotgun is exactly what you expect and it loves every minute of it.

Sam Rhodes is the Creative Director of Fanboy Comics, an independent comic book publishing company based in Los Angeles, CA. For more interviews, blogs, and reviews by Sam and the FBC staff, check out the Fanboy Comics website at FanboyComics.net or sign up for the e-newsletter, The Fanboy Scoop, by emailing subscribe@fanboycomics.net.