Im back again, and this time it's not taken three weeks to post a review. This new one is of the Canadian Grindhouse homage, Hobo With a Shotgun that is currently showing in selected cinema's and will be available on dvd and blu ray from August 8th. Check out my review after the break...
I have this love hate relationship with these so called Grindhouse movies, Rodriguez and Tarantino both have a lot to answer for. When you make a film that is supposed to 'homage' the golden age of exploitation films of the 60s and 70s, films that were shot cheaply and badly you don't expect to find two big name directors making what they call a grindhouse experience when they're shooting their movies on multi-million dollar budgets. That's what pissed me off the most about Planet Terror and Death Proof, these films are supposed to look cheap yet they have big name cast's, Large budgets and good special FX, What Hobo With A Shotgun does that these two films didn't is bring the bile, the exploitation and down right nastiness of these so-called grindhouse films back to our screens.
Hobo With A Shotgun started out life as an entry into the Grindhouse trailer competition set up by RR and QT, it won with its right on the money style, dialogue and editing, so the world of the internet was buzzing with people saying, “ they need to make this feature length”, “ this is fucking awesome” and “More Gindhouse than Grindhouse” so it was inevitable that much like the film Machete, the other popular fake trailer, HWASG would get the feature treatment. Having seen Eisner's previous short film, TreeVenge which I though was genius, I was looking forward to seeing what he could do with a feature.
So come 2011 and the release of HWASG, and I was really looking forward to it. What was even cooler than actually seeing a feature length version was the fact that Rutger Hauer was set to star as the hobo, awesome right, Hauer, the man from Blind Fury, Wanted: Dead Or Alive and fucking Blade Runner, kicking ass with a shotgun, I was sold.
So I sat down to watch the film. First scene is of the Hobo riding the trains while the theme form Mark Of the Devil plays to great effect as he approaches the border of Peace Town. A city full of scum bags, hobos, prostitutes, Paedophiles and Corrupt police officers and it's presided over by the tyrannical Drake, the lord of the manor if you will, a deplorable little man with two evil sons, Slick and Ivan. The Hobo witnesses the decapitation of a man who turns out to be the Drakes brother and finds himself drawn into the corrupt world. As he witnesses the crime, corruption and violence of Peace town, he, along with his trusty shotgun delivers justice one shell at a time in an attempt to clean up the streets of this shit hole for the future generations.
It's the usual revenge/vigilante premise but what sets this film apart from those that came before is it's visual style, it's almost comic book like in it's visuals, colours leap out of the screen, The music is brilliant and the blood almost constantly flowing. I came into this review with the mindset of absolutely hating it because when I saw it, I wasn't overly impressed, it looked like a Troma movie, in away in which everything looked cheap and exploitative but then I thought about it, this is the exact style this film was going for. It's insane use of colours be it red, green, blue, purple or yellow makes the film leap out of the screen, and on reflection I can honestly say, I think I actually enjoyed it. Im going to get a lot a bad comments from people who I have told that I hated it but I think it's a grower.
I hated most of the characters, but I guess that's what Jason Eisner was aiming for, to really make the viewer hate these villainous scum bags and cheer on the hobo. I did find my self cheering on the Hobo and this maybe because I am biased being a Rutger Hauer Fan, but unlike the trailer, which made you think the original hobo was just an insane person, Hauer brings a lot of humanity to what could have been a one dimensional character. It's great to see Hauer back on the screen in a main role as he has mainly appeared as supporting actors for the last 15 years or so, and this is miles away from his appearance in Batman Begins. All hail the Hauer and also check out Blind Fury, his western take on the Zatoichi cannon of films. It's awesome.
Another familiar face was Gregory Smith, the kid from Joe Dante's Small Soldiers and the entertaining western American Outlaws. He played Slick, the scummiest of scum bags and one of the Drake's sons. He's pretty good in a non good boy role and I guess he enjoyed it because he comes across as having fun with the character.
The Drake is played by Brian Downey. The fella off of that bizarre sci-fi show Lexx ('97-'02) and he's really evil, he dresses like an evangelical preacher, you know the ones that show up on GodTV telling you that if you pay them £100 then all your sins will be washed away, that's right that kind of person. But he's more than just a 'gangster' he pretty much runs the town and he lets people know this. He's interesting as The Drake.
Molly Dunsworth plays Abby the hooker with a heart, who after the Hobo takes a beating from some corrupt coppers, rescues him and they form a bond. She kind of becomes his protégé and takes on the mantel of justice prevails, all beit bloody and violent. She pretty hot too.
The film has this really awesome soundtrack, like I said previously, the film opens with the theme from the film Mark Of The Devil (1970) by Michael Holm, and this is used to great effect, the rest of score is made up of tracks written for the film by the Obsidian Orchestra. The film ends with a rather unique 80s esque, rock ballad entitled 'Run With Us', you know the kind of song, it's like Hearts On Fire and No Easy Way out from Rocky 4 or Justice For One from Savage Streets but I couldn't help recognising the song from somewhere else. It wasn't until I was doing some research for this review that I found out where i'd heard it before. It's the theme from 80s kids show The Raccoons, a show I loved so much as a kid. It's a brilliant choice of music to end the film on.
I've talked a lot about the visual look of the film and how it jumps off the screen, this is due to Eisner using the very popular Red-Cam, the same system used to shoot Pirates Of The Caribbean 4 and currently shooting The Hobbit and it looks great, the lighting is spot on and the editing works well. Eisner has created something unforgettable with HWASG and i'd like to see what he pulls out of the bag next. My only major problem with the film was the inclusion of The Plague, a pair of armour clad ninja's/knights that are called in to kill the Hobo, for some reason they didn't really fit with the rest of the film. I understand that this is obviously not set in the real world but a little background explanation wouldn't have hurt.
So, like I said , on first viewing I really didn't think much of the film, but then I really sat down and thought about it. It does have a lot going for it, a great main star, and interesting character, lashing of violence and buckets of blood, a lot of foul mouthed people and the use of an ice skate as a weapon, but then it's bogged down by the randomness of 'The Plague' and the performance from Nick Bateman as Ivan, unfortunately he was one of the worst aspects of the film. But like I said on second watch and after really thinking about it the film stayed with me so if a film can do that it obviously made an impression on me. So to end, Hobo With A Shotgun is fun ride, it's over the top, violent foul mouthed and with a great central performance from Mr.Hauer, it's a film all horror and Cult movie fans should definitely check out but you might not like the Plague or that Ivan kid which is why this film gets 3 starts....
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