Ah Phil Collins, man of the people. Who better to illustrate the trials and tribulations of the homeless in modern society. He is a sensitive guy after all and I hear he does a good line in divorces by fax. Well I'm afraid Phil life on the street has moved up a gear since 1989, for starters Rutger Hauer is on the scene and he is one pissed off hobo.
What began as a competition winning trailer shown as part of the Rodriguez/Tarantino double feature 'Grindhouse', more recently graced our screens as a full length feature film in it's own right..and it is shotgun with a capital S and exploitation with a capital E.
The story unfolds with our hobo hero train hopping to a destination fondly referred to by the locals as 'Scum Town', where he soon becomes a tad disheartened about the lack of brotherly love in his new neighbourhood. Local overlord 'The Drake' and his two wanna-be Patrick Bateman offspring lead the way in the sadism is fun club, while his fellow citizens have too discovered a healthy dose of deviancy within and aren't afraid to express it. Women, children, Santa Claus; you name it nothing is sacred anymore.
While our hobo struggles to comprehend how he made such a catastrophic error in route planning, he does dream of escape and with it a future career in landscape gardening; symbolised by the clapped-out lawnmower sitting in the window of the local 'Pawn til Dawn'. All he needs is cash and soon he can be free, mowing lawns surrounded by white picket fences in an idyllic location, slaving over minimum wage working for the man...and while he is prepared to go to significant 'artistic' lengths to raise said moolah he can't prevent his rage from brewing...
When he finally feels compelled to intervene during an assault and protect fiery prostitute Abby from certain dismemberment, in one fell swoop his path begins to turn from vagabond to vigilante...
Hobo With A Shotgun fully embraces the exploitation genre and then some, with tongue firmly planted in cheek all the way. Rutger Hauer certainly hasn't lost his touch playing the unhinged and Molly Dunsworth (Abby) makes a complimentary sidekick. Gore goes up to 11 on this one and the use of saturated colour and lighting throughout looks great, director Jason Eisener has a good eye. If you are in the slightest bit squeamish I don't think you're ready for Scum Town and its eccentric inhabitants, go visit Midsomer instead.
I couldn't but be impressed with this absurd amount of technicolour carnage in so many creative forms, I won't look at a pair of ice skates the same way again...or a manhole cover. Michael Winner would be clambering out of his grave to see this film, if he weren't still alive. I laughed, I squirmed, I went down Walmart and bought me some shells. You think it's wrong? Again, blame Canada.
Maybe tomorrow he'll try and settle down, until tomorrow he'll just keep shooting rounds.
