Hobo with a Shotgun: I sincerely wanted to like this movie based on its title and trailer alone. In this homage to 70’s violent exploitation flicks that began its life as a fake trailer during the “Grindhouse“ films (like “Machete“), Rutger Hauer is a hobo who comes to a city (called “Scum Town”) that is overrun with crime (and by ‘overrun with crime‘, I mean the criminals rule, the cops are dirty, and all manner of bad stuff happens to your average citizen all the time). He just wants to make enough money to open his own lawn-mowing business. However, he is overwhelmed by the evil he is surrounded by and decides to go after various no-goodniks, of which there are many to choose from, becoming a vigilante wielding the aforementioned shotgun of the title. This brings him to the attention of the head criminal boss, The Drake and his two psychotic sons. The violence is so over-the-top, it‘s comical and silly, and it’s gory almost to a fault - it’s gory to the point of useless excess that doesn‘t serve the plot. For example, a young woman gets part of her arm destroyed by a lawnmower and then uses the protruding bone to stab someone. Heads explode, children on a school bus are attacked by a flamethrower. It seems that the director, first timer Jason Eisener, didn’t realize that he could be visually outrageous but still have an interesting story to tell that supported those self-same visuals. It's obvious mayhem won out. Still, there are some nice artistic touches (a good use of color, too). Woodchuck sez, "This should have been better."
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