HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN (director/writer: Jason Eisener; screenwriters: Rob Cotterill/John Davies/story by John Davies; cinematographer: Karim Hussain; music: Adam P. Burke/Darius Holber/Russ Howard III & The Obsidian Orchestra; cast: Rutger Hauer (Hobo), Molly Dunsworth (Abby), Gregory Smith (Slick), Brian Downey (Drake), Nick Bateman (Ivan), Jeremy Akerman (Chief Wakeum), Pasha Ebrahimi (Bumfight Filmmaker), Robb Wells (Logan); Runtime: 85; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Rob Cotterill/Niv Fichman/Frank Siracusa; Magnolia Pictures; 2011-Canada)

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

First-time director Jason Eisener (“The Teeth Beneath“)directs this trashy exploitation clichéd pic, that was inspired by his competition-winning fake trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s bummer “Grindhouse” film. This one is a sicko exercise in meaningless entertainment, geared for those who get off on moronic bloodbath pics. The pic leaves us with the perverted message that humanity has become so depraved that the only solution for cleaning up corruption is outdoing the baddies in violence.

Rutger Hauer portrays the titular elderly hobo vigilante, who winds up in Hope Town, called by the low-life locals Fuck Town, after hopping off a freight train and gets fed up with the violence he sees directed at defenseless innocent people by the goons of evil wealthy TV producer Drake (Brian Downey). The raving lunatic Drake runs things in town with impunity, and like the targeted viewer gets his jollies watching innocents tortured. The nameless hobo makes a citizen’s arrest of Drake’s favorite evil son Slick (Gregory Smith) and the corrupt police chief (Jeremy Akerman) instead attacks him, thereby giving Slick the chance to carve with a switchblade knife the word ‘Scum’ into the hobo’s chest. The hobo soon manages to get a shotgun from a pawn shop and goes after the city’s venal criminal element, its pimps and pedophiles. Then as a protector to teenage streetwalker Abby (Molly Dunsworth), the hobo puts all his energy into bringing down the evil empire run by Drake and his psychopathic sadist sons Slick and Ivan (Nick Bateman). The hobo also frees the citizens from Drake’s bloody reign of terror, after he ordered them to kill all the homeless or he will kill their children.

This is a sloppily made, witless and poorly acted production. It’s a bad film with an inept screenplay written for shock value by the director and cowriters Rob Cotterill and John Davies, who pretend the dialogue and narrative is so terrible on purpose. The filmmaker also wants us to believe its crude perverse scenes of torture and decapitations are meant as artistic expressions for its lurid grindhouse look.

REVIEWED ON 11/15/2011 GRADE: C-

Dennis Schwartz: “Ozus’ World Movie Reviews”

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