Tweet
Released by: Magnolia Films
Released on: 7/5/2011
Director: Jason Eisener
Cast: Rutger Hauer, Brian Downey, Gregory Smith, Nick Bateman, Molly Dunsworth
Year: 2011
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
“I'm gonna sleep in your bloody carcasses tonight!â€
Hobo With A Shotgun, like Machete before it, started life as a fake trailer made to be shown in between the two features that made up Tarantino and Rodriguez's Grindhouse double feature. The fake trailer was shown at Canadian theatrical screenings and became a pretty popular clip on YouTube and, low and behold, Jason Eisener managed to get funding to make the trailer into a feature with none other than the legendary Rutger Hauer in the lead role.
When the film begins, a hobo (Hauer) is riding a freight train into a new town. He arrives to find he's made a poor choice in locations when he immediately sees a man who calls himself The Drake (Brian Downey) and his two sons, Ivan (Nick Bateman) and Slick (Gregory Smith) decapitate The Drake's own brother, Logan (Rob Wells of Trailer Park Boys) over a loan gone bad. As our hobo wanders around town pushing his shopping cart, he's accosted by a 'Bum Fights' style guy with a camera filming homeless people getting the shit kicked out of them and eventually winds up on the wrong side of Drake's sons when he stops one of them from raping a beautiful blonde prostitute named Abby (Molly Dunsworth). When the hobo gets carved up in retaliation, she takes him back to her place and helps to nurse him back to health, her act of kindness inspiring him to make a difference. He heads to the local pawn shop to get a lawnmower, intending to use it to start his own business and get off the streets, just as a trio of burglars show up. The hobo, finally fed up, grabs a shotgun off of the wall and serves out violent justice from the end of his gun.
“I'm gonna wash this blood off… with your blood.â€
He soon goes on a vigilante killing spree, offing a child molester dressed as Santa Claus, taking out that Bum Fights camera man, and doing all that he can to clean up the city. This, of course, lands him on the wrong side of the local police department who are, as the police chief states, 'all dirty cops' and quite obviously on The Drake's payroll. When the hobo gets too close to The Drake, all bets are off and he and his sons decide the only way to get him out of their hair is to kill him.
“When life gives you razorblades, you make a baseball bat covered in razorblades!â€
A completely over the top mix of films like Death Wish and Taxi Driver by way of Street Trash and Mad Max, Eisener's Hobo With A Shotgun is so completely absurd and so completely ridiculous that you can't help but love it. The film starts off with a bang and doesn't let up, proving to be one of the most violent films ever churned out in the Great White North (and partially funded by a grant from the Canadian government no less!). It's not concerned with characterization or depth, so don't expect any back story for our hobo or the prostitute with a heart of gold he winds up with, we're just put in the moment with these characters and taken along for the ride. The emphasis here is on action and splatter, it's a purely visceral film meant more to impress your eyes than your brain but damn it if Eisener doesn't make it work.
“Put the knife away, kid... or I'll use it to cut welfare checks from your rotten skin!â€
Performance wise, we're in amazingly awful shape here. Hauer plays a seedier, grubbier, more extreme version of Eastwood's Walt Kowalski from Gran Torino, a man past his prime and tired of the bullshit that modern society has fed him to the point where he's going to do something about it. Throw in some elements of Travis Bickle (his rants and his penchant for young hookers!) and you're getting the right idea. He scowls his way from one insanely bloody set piece to the next and is absolutely perfect for the part. Molly Dunsworth plays her part well, if not with much depth. She looks the part, foxy enough in her hooker garb to convince you she's a street walker but also sufficient enough in the film's fleeting tender moments. The bad guys shine here, with Brian Downey of Lexx never going any less than completely over the top as the main villain and with Gregory Smith and Nick Bateman offering bizarre Tom Cruise inspired supporting roles, each trying to outdo one another in terms of cruelty to win their father's affections.
“It's a great day for a skate rape!â€
Just as important as the performances are the locations and the effects. Eisener has transformed parts of Halifax, Nova Scotia in to some of the filthiest locales you're ever likely to see. If you think about the dirty atmosphere that seventies and eighties New York City locations offered, and then filter them through puke colored glasses, you've more or less arrived as Hobo's Scum City. Covered in graffiti and litter, it's a dirty, scary place and a perfect set for a movie like this. The gore effects, which are VERY plentiful, are almost all done entirely with practical effects from the looks of things. Those worried that lifeless CGI would suck all the fun out of the film can rest assured that this is absolutely not the case, which makes the film's intended 'grindhouse throwback' look and feel all the more authentic.
Not for the faint hearted, it's like the kids got the keys to the candy store and just overdosed on sugar and went nuts. Those looking for depth can look elsewhere, Hobo With A Shotgun has none of that to offer you, rather, it's a gratuitous gore soaked love letter to exploitation films with a great lead performance from Hauer. Full of quotable dialogue, memorable set pieces, and colorful (if completely shallow) characters, the movie turns out to be a whole lot of fun.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Hobo With A Shotgun looks just as rough and dirty as it should in this AVC encoded 2.35.1 widescreen 1080p high definition transfer from Magnolia. Digitally manipulated in terms of color and texture the film has an appropriately gritty, grainy, grimy look that does a great job of putting right front and center in the middle of the filth. Detail is strong, but not reference quality the way the latest Hollywood blockbuster might be - but the film isn't going for slick, it's going for nasty and it gets it. Close up shots show all sorts of detail in Hauer's craggy looking face while outdoor shots let you get a feel for the dirt and the debris that litter the streets of 'Scum City.' Black levels are pretty good, generally nice and deep, and there are no problems with banding nor is there an over abundance of edge enhancement. Some minor compression artifacts are there if you look for them, but odds are pretty good you won't be - the movie looks just as it should here, not too pretty and accurate of the director's intentions but still very much a good quality high definition presentation.
The only audio option for the movie is a pretty strong DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track with optional subtitles provided in English SDH and Spanish. Audio quality is good here, with nice use made of the surround channels during a few key scenes. There could have been more rear channel activity maybe, but there are plenty of directional effects present throughout the movie to hold your attention. Dialogue is clean and clear and there are no problems with any hiss or distortion. The levels are well balanced and the score, which borrows from movies like Cannibal Holocaust and Escape From New York, sounds excellent.
Extras are far more plentiful than you'd probably expect, making this Blu-ray a special edition release in the truest sense of the term. First up is a commentary track with director Jason Eisener and leading man Rutger Hauer, who discuss how Hauer came on board, what they liked about working with one another and give a good overall impression of what it was like working on the movie. A second commentary finds Eisner teamed up with writer John Davies, producer Rob Cotterill, and original 'Grindhouse trailer Hobo' David Brunt. These three are a bit more active and they know each other well enough to have a good time here as they talk about the original trailer that inspired the movie and what it was like making that piece which lead to the contest win and in turn the movie itself. Complimenting the commentary tracks is the Shotgun Mode viewing option, which is basically an interactive scene specific picture-in-picture track that lets you access behind the scenes information, extra gory bits, and interviews as the movie plays out, similar to Warner's Maximum Movie Mode.
From there we move on to the featurettes, the first of which is More Blood, More Heart: The Making Of Hobo With A Shotgun which is a nice look at the making of the movie made up of some behind the scenes footage and some cast and crew interviews. It covers some of the same ground as the commentary and the Shotgun Mode feature but it's still pretty enjoyable and you really get a feel for how much all of these guys enjoyed working with one another. From there check out the Fangoria Interview With Jason Eisener And Rutger Hauer in which the director and star further discuss their work together on the film, and the HDNet: A Look At Hobo With A Shotgun piece, which is basically a glorified EPK type promotional piece.
If that weren't enough, there are some cool deleted scenes here, an alternate ending, the original 'Grindhouse' Hobo With A Shotgun trailer, a few Canadian TV spots for the feature, the U.S. redband trailer for the feature, and the Hobo With A Shotgun trailer contest winner, Van Gore, which is pretty fun. Some video blogs and test footage clips are also included. Animated menus and chapter stops are included as is a digital copy of the film for those who want to take it with them should they choose to hop a freight train or something. The whole deal is packaged up in a nice slipcase featuring the great cover art you see at the top of this page, nicely embossed to give it a folded up one-sheet feel.
The Final Word:
A completely bad ass package for a completely bad ass film, Magnolia's Blu-ray debut of Hobo With A Shotgun is all killer, no filler, offering up the film in a gloriously 'rough' looking transfer with rock solid audio and more than an entire dirty shopping cart's worth of extra features!
Click on the images below for full size Blu-ray screen caps!
