“Hobo” isn’t quite as imaginative, but contains a similarly wacky edge that doesn’t come at the expense of production values. His twisted short film “Treevenge” imagined a vengeful group of Christmas trees murdering the families that took them captive for the holidays. The final showdown between the hobo and a group of medieval baddies known as The Plague sets out to dazzle the senses and succeeds.Įisner has toyed with this format before. Which is not to say that the entertainment value vanishes it just loses focus and explodes into a mess of maniacal set pieces. At that point, Eisner stops telling a story and lets the goofiness take over. The story only starts to wane once he finally gets his hands on the shotgun. After forming an allegiance with equally street smart prostitute Abby (Molly Dunsworth), the hobo gives up on trying to convince the town’s nefarious cops to help him out and launches a one-man army against The Drake and his villainous family. Obviously comfortable in the wizened tough-guy role, Hauer puts on a legitimately crazy performance, muttering nonsensical monologues about the virtues of bear antics and announcing his heroic intentions of doling out justice for sake of Scum Town’s terrified residents. Hauer looks appropriately mortified and over the course of the next 80-odd minutes, his expression transforms into pure fury.
Hobo with a shotgun movie#
And so the movie announces its brash formula. A scantily clad women bathes in the subsequent explosion of blood. Within minutes, he witnesses the antics of local mob boss The Drake (Brian Downey), who happily yanks off his brother’s head while leaving the body dangling inside a manhole. Hopping off a train from nowhere, the hobo finds himself in the insanely corrupt Hope Town (renamed “Scum Town: by its destructive inhabitants). Shot on the cheap, the movie is nonetheless beautifully photographed by Karim Hussain with a high-contrast, grainy style that reflects the tattered world where Hauer’s anonymous hobo resides. With an amusing eighties synth score and nary a smartphone in sight, “Hobo” wouldn’t have looked out of place at the dirtiest Times Square venue 30 years ago. But rather than expanding on the motifs of grindhouse cinema with deeper aims, as Tarantino might, Eisner inhabits the genre.
The full-length “Hobo” returns to those sensibilities. Now and Then: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmasīest Movies Never Made: 35 Lost Projects from Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino, and MoreĪ History of Unsimulated Sex Scenes in Cannes Films, from 'Mektoub' to 'Antichrist' WATCH: Tilda Swinton Narrates 'Dreams Rewired,' a Hypnotic Vision of Technological Revolution The “Hobo” trailer not only won the contest but also wound up attached to “Grindhouse” for its Canadian release, thoroughly integrating this gloriously one-note premise into Tarantino and Rodriguez’s deranged universe of homage. The movie’s premise was initially outlined in a fake trailer concocted for a 2007 contest to promote the release of “Grindhouse,” the nostalgia-laden double-bill concocted by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, which included a few mock trailers of its own in between the features. Loaded to the gills with thrill-inducing mayhem, “Hobo with a Shotgun” feels almost tribal in its commitment to violence.Īnd that’s at least partially a result of its origin story. Director Jason Eisner’s first feature demonstrates a serious investment in cheap entertainment.
Hobo with a shotgun plus#
“Hobo” has both, plus ample doses of exagerrated gore, a faded eighties action star, and the giddy, unfocused energy of an ADD-riddled Saturday morning cartoon. Griffith allegedly deemed a girl and a gun as the minimum requirements for any engrossing movie formula.
The selling point of “Hobo with a Shotgun” is its primal appeal.
0 kommentar(er)
