Sundance 2011 Review: Ben's Take on HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN

(Read Dr. Venkman's review here.)

As it stands right now, Hobo With A Shotgun is my favorite film of Sundance 2011. This movie delivers exactly what it promises and so much more; I had more fun watching this than any other movie here. There are lines that generally aren't crossed in movies, but director Jason Eisener blasts through those lines like a shotgun shell to the head. The balls-out action, over the top violence, and predilection for gore makes me think these filmmakers aren't familiar with the phrase "holding back," and their confidence shines through on the big screen.

Rutger Hauer is phenomenal as the titular Hobo, a simple man who just wants to settle down and open up a lawn-mowing business. But when he stumbles into a town overrun with corruption, violence, and a pedophile dressed as Santa Claus, the hobo trades his dreams of mowing grass for a reality of mowing down bad guys. Hauer is grizzled and wild-eyed; he's haunted and pissed off, and no one is going to stop him.

Eisener knows exactly what he's doing every step of the way, from the old school opening credits to the end credits theme song. In my eyes, this movie has a better grasp of the grindhouse spirit than any other modern attempt. The deaths in this film are legendary. There are beheadings, flame throwers, baseball bats covered in razor blades - and that's just for starters. The violence is so outrageous, it's actually bearable to watch; if this were a movie set in a "real" world naturalistic setting, the ways people die would make me physically ill. But because the tone is struck perfectly, the deaths are played for laughs instead of horror and we get a humorous catharsis out of seeing these people absolutely dismantled. Hobo With A Shotgun is like this generation's Death Race 2000 on crack.

The dialogue is supposed to be laughably bad and through its use of fantastic one-liners and earnest delivery, the movie achieves that campy vibe of really bad action movies from the 70s and 80s. Basically, if you saw the trailer and liked it, I almost guarantee you won't be disappointed. This is the biggest crowd-pleaser of the festival, and even the generally stoic press audience was shocked by the insanity taking place before us.

If you're still in doubt, consider this: I'm almost positive nobody else could make a better film about a hobo with a shotgun. This is the best it can be done, with just the right balance of humor, violence, and action to keep everyone satisfied. If you're like me and you get together with friends to watch terrible movies on purpose, I can't recommend this highly enough - see Hobo With A Shotgun any way you can as soon as you possibly can.

Here's the official synopsis:

A train rolls into its final stop. From one of the freight cars jumps a weary-eyed transient with dreams of a fresh start in a new town. Instead, he lands smack-dab in the middle of an urban hellhole, a place where the cops are crooked and the underprivileged masses are treated like insignificant animals. This is a city where crime reigns supreme, and the man pulling the strings is known only as "The Drake." Along with his two cold-blooded and sadistic sons, Ivan and Slick, he rules with an iron fist, and nobody dares fuck with The Drake, especially not some hobo.

Director Jason Eisener’s blood-soaked return to the Sundance Film Festival is more than just a nod to the grindhouse flicks of the 1970s and ’80s; he ups the ante in a major way, and Rutger Hauer’s performance is a legendary display of brutal ass-kicking and meticulous name-taking that is not to be missed.