The Angry Rail-Riding Homeless Gentleman With a Pump-Action Long-Barreled Firearm

Hobo With a Shotgun (2011)

Short version: If you grew up with 1980s VHS action-gore-trash, you’ll love Hobo With a Shotgun.
I would have preferred a more straightforward gritty semi-realistic 1970s vibe, though.

Hobo owes SO MUCH to Street Trash—the flick’s pretty bad in an intentionally campy way—but not as smart or deranged as its many influences. It’s clever, I get it—and seeing extreme splatter on the big screen is always fun—but Hobo just didn’t quite click for me.

Hobo With a Shotgun (great frickin’ title, though—and wicked cool font; see below) was a spoof of a certain type of 1980s action-slash-horror movie—it looked a lot like a Nick Zedd film actually—And I had a lot of problems with all its very obvious influences: the aforementioned Street Trash, early Sam Raimi, Asian gore flicks like The Story of Ricky, and so on.

And I am getting a little sick of tribute/mash-ups/homages—I have seen enough where it really needs to grab me, to be more than just a reference—it needs to be worked into context. (Or else be really funny or smart.)
Honestly, though, right now I cannot think of a counter-example.




But Rutger Hauer, the coolest white man EVER, was great—every second he was on screen was riveting—really!
(And I did enjoy that one of the bad guys was named “Ivan”….)

While I have already criticized the film’s script, I will say that all of the Hobo’s dialog is classic: angry Zen retard brilliance. Highly quotable.

Overall, I think if I’d seen Hobo With a Shotgun at home, with a six-pack or other intoxicants, I would have enjoyed it much more. But the $13 ticket cost and the $6.50 for a small popcorn (WTF?!?! I really should’ve said “no”—but I was hongry…) made me watch this movie with a shotgun-toting-hobo-sized chip on my shoulder.