Hobo With a Shotgun (Blu-ray Review)

2 Jul, 2011 By: Angelique Flores

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Street 7/5/11
Magnolia
Horror
Box Office $0.7 million
$26.98 DVD, $29.98 two-DVD set, $29.98 Blu-ray
Not rated.
Stars Rutger Hauer.

Hobo With a Shotgun is riddled with all the gore and camp a grindhouse film should have. That should come as no surprise, since it’s based on a fake trailer for the Grindhouse double feature by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez.

Rutger Hauer stars as a badass hobo who rolls into town on a train. He’s just a quiet guy panhandling for money to buy a lawnmower. But he quickly becomes a victim and witness to the violent antics of Drake and his two sons, Slick and Ivan, who always sport their dark Roy Orbison-style Raybans. The three are so ruthless in their mayhem, they decapitate Drake’s own brother’s head in the most gruesome way. Their minions smash people’s heads for sport, burn children, rob people, and torture and murder for the sheer pleasure of it.

When the hobo realizes the cops are just as dirty, he goes vigilante once he gets his hands on a shotgun. Along the way, he befriends a prostitute, Abby, whom he had rescued from Ivan. They develop a father-daughter bond, helping each other fight their way out of this bloody town.

After the innocent townspeople begin rooting for the hobo, Drake and his sons have pitted them against him, threatening to have the townspeople kill each other (think bum fights to the death) if they don’t help them kill the hobo hero.

Not since I saw A Clockwork Orange or Natural Born Killers have I seen such graphic, gratuitous, stomach-turning violence — at least from what I saw when I didn’t turn away. Those with a stronger stomach will appreciate the blood, guts, and the creative ways these filmmakers came up with to torture and kill. I do admit that I was satisfied after seeing the hobo shoot Ivan’s crotch in retribution.
 

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