"Hobo" first appeared on screens in 2007 as part of "Grindhouse," when Eisner put together a fake trailer for the movie. Four years later, the trailer became a reality.
An unknown hobo tries to mind his own business, until he can't stand to be a bystander any longer. His remedy: buy a shotgun from a pawn shop and implement his version of vigilante justice. In the fictitious Nova Scotian town, the police are just as bad as the criminals, and within the first minutes of the movie, blood soaks the screen. Welcome to Hope City.
Rutger Hauer stars as the law-enforcing hobo. Hauer and his prostitute partner Abby (Molly Dunsworth) are arguably the only two actors whose characters require more than simply swearing, growling or maniacally screaming their lines. In a peculiar way, the villains hover somewhere between the tongue-and-cheek sadism of Batman's Two Face and the quirkiness of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" minus the monologues. The effect is not very convincing, and much of the acting looks forced and unnatural.
The reasons for all the killings are never explained. It's gore for gore's sake, with close-ups of despicable acts of brutality.
"Hobo" emulates the bloody shower-head effects of "Kill Bill," where severed limbs gush blood as if under considerable water pressure. But unlike that more acclaimed film, "Hobo with a Shotgun" has literal floods of gore and emphasizes blood lust and blood loss. You can almost taste the iron in your mouth.
Maybe Eisner, though, is on to something. His trailer for "Hobo" won the Grindhouse contest more than three years ago, and it could thrive within that circle and become a cult favorite.
The movie already inspired a computer game by the same name, probably ensuring that "Hobo" will have a built-in audience, even after it leaves theaters. As a stand-alone feature film, however, "Hobo" is weak.
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