Hobo with a Shotgun

God bless Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. With their glorious "Grindhouse" double-feature of 2007, they popularised and reinvented a long-slumbering genre, namely the grungy exploitation aspect of cinema that reigned free in the '60s and '70s. Since then, we've received "Machete," "Piranha 3D" and "Drive Angry 3D," all deliriously amusing slices of crazily over-the-top violence. And now blasting its way onto cinema screens is "Hobo with a Shotgun," directed by first-time filmmaker Jason Eisener.

The imaginatively titled gunsploitation is actually a direct by-product of "Grindhouse," a fake trailer for a non-existent movie called "Hobo with a Shotgun" having been produced for display in front of the double-barrel splatter-fest. And four years later, that fake trailer is a full-length feature, much the same as Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis' "Machete" of yesteryear -- but better.

It stars Rutger Hauer ("Blade Runner") as the eponymous and nameless hobo, who arrives in Hope Town (renamed "Fuck Town") on the carriage of a freight train. He quickly grabs a shopping cart, starts to making signs for begging purposes, and wanders around the area to ask for some petty cash.

What he is shocked to find is that the town's new name is more than appropriate -- Hope/Fuck Town is run by degenerate criminals and corrupt cops. While minding his own business, the wrinkle-faced hobo is subjected to sickening acts of brutal violence, from public beheadings in broad daylight to breaking arms in video arcades.

Mortified by all the ignored savagery, our vagrant hero decides to intervene after witnessing an attempted rape on prostitute Abby (Molly Dunsworth), running afoul of hoodlum Slick (Gregory Smith, "Everwood"), Slick's crime lord father, Drake (Brian Downey, "Lexx"), and dirty Police Chief Wakeum (Jeremy Akerman, "Just Buried") along the way.

Unable to take a hint when having the word "SCUM" carved into his chest, the brave hobo decides to take on all the crime in the town, wielding a $49.99 shotgun and blasting holes into crooks and murderers all throughout the area. He's asking for change, and not the coins in your trouser pocket kinda change.

Filmed in wonderful Technicolor, "Hobo with a Shotgun" is unadulterated gratuitous goodness. Buckets of blood are splashed all over pavements, over the screen, over pedestrians and over half-naked prostitutes with their nipples on display. Victims of the hobo's newly acquired weapon are reduced to water balloons filled with red corn syrup. Who knew a shotgun and some shells could cause so much bodily harm?

The film is grungy, it's nasty and it's all the better for it. Almost going too far on several occasions, it really does push the envelope on the acceptability of on-screen violence, albeit executing it in the most cartoonish methods possible. Heck, even I cringed at some of the more obscene moments, and I'm supposed to be a desensitised teen.

Hauer really throws himself into the role, taking on its self-aware silliness and performing it with a straight face. He's playing this homeless vigilante who claims to be "from nowhere," appalled by the onslaught of barbarism he observes and eventually decides to act against. You find yourself caught up in his motivation, you yourself watching degrading and monstrous acts committed by the townspeople, egging the hobo on to take bloody justice into his own grubby hands.

While the film is a tongue-in-cheek throwback to grindhouse spectacles (complete with an '80s synthesiser score), it's surprisingly more serious than one would expect. Instead of parodying these outrageously lurid B-movies, it becomes one of them, the only real laughs coming from the brilliant one-liners and the maniacal amount of bodily damage. It's not 100% serious, but there is a stern sincerity to it amongst all the gory madness and deliberate goofiness.

There's a very little amount of negative things I could say about "Hobo with a Shotgun" because it does exactly what it set out to do, and it does it rather admirably. It's not perfect (the beginning of the film is a bit wobbly), but there's no denying it is a ton of hilariously demented fun and a gloriously revolting showcase of nasty violence. I'd give "Hobo with a Shotgun" some loose change if I were you -- he might shoot you if you don't.

8/10