Why I Liked... Hobo With A Shotgun (2011)

(Dir. Jason Eisener Starring: Rutger Hauer, Molly Dunsworth)

It was the most fun in a cinema I’ve had in a while.

Originally created as a trailer for the Grindhouse Double Feature by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, Hobo With A Shotgun, what with it’s incredibly revealing title, doesn’t hold back. It was as if we had been wooshed back to the 70’s and were at the cinema on a ho hum Monday night to watch decapitations, boobs, and hobos.

Which was fantastic.

Fair warning, though-this is not a film for those wanting to take it seriously. Sure, there are going to be those who decide to shovel hidden meanings and political messages into it, and maybe it’ll come to me one day, but for me Hobo With A Shotgun was just about satisfying my Id, and being able to laugh at something I would normally be hiding behind the sofa from (I have a delicate disposition, after all).

It's all he knows.

Sometimes, it’s just easier to laugh at smashed kneecaps. What can I say?

Overall, I don’t think I really had a problem with the film. The gore was gory, the blood bloody, and the dialogue? Incredibly quote worthy. I’m not sure if one were to actually go back to the 70’s that the dialogue would be as purposefully bad, but in the time of such gems as, say, Twilight, Hobo With A Shotgun was pure gold, capturing the essence of the over the top violence with over the top, absurdist dialogue.

Gaga's next look.

But wait-allow me to describe the film’s plot a bit. A hobo (Hauer) arrives in Hope City, looking for change and encountering extreme violence. All he wants to do is mow lawns (with this catchy slogan “U grow, we cut it”) with the mower he finds in a pawn shop. After he befriends a hooker (Dunsworth) in danger, he decides he’s had enough of the corrupt town, and decides to solve it “one shell at a time”.

Yup, vigilantism at its best.

There’s a mob family at the centre of the story, targeting the hobo (and all other hobos) for attempting to challenge their stranglehold over the city.

I’m not actually sure what else to say about this film, to be honest. It was really fun. Really over the top. Really bloody. Really not to be taken in any way seriously.

But really needs to be watched.