IT MAY NOT have set the box office on fire, but the Tarantino-Rodriguez Grindhouseportmanteau has left an indelibly grimy imprint on contemporary cinema. Following on from last year's disappointing Machete, director Jason Eisener's feature debut is the second of Grindhouse's fake trailers to get the major motion picture treatment.
Eisener, who won a competition to get his spot in the Grindhouseprogramme, brings a post-videogame sensibility and freshness to the delirious, po-mo exploitation flick. No Z-movie since the halcyon Hong Kong days of Riki-Oh: The Story of Rickyand Maruta 2: Laboratory of the Devilhas dared to smash so many watermelons and gloves filled with fake blood.
Kudos.
The presence of Rutger Hauer in the title role adds snark and a touch of the metafiction found in JCVD, My Name Is Bruceand Cold Souls. Mostly, however, Hobo With a Shotgunis about a hobo with a shotgun.
Perhaps the shopping- trolley-pushing hero should have thought twice about moving into Scum Town. A lawless district where evil marauding villains think nothing of killing the homeless with makeshift dodgems or torching a school bus of children, Scum Town is ruled by The Drake (Brian Downey), a sort of cackling comic mutation of Blue Velvet's Frank Booth. His ostentatiously sadistic sons, Ivan and Slick, are equally brutal. The local police leave one pining for the relative societal restraints of Mad Max 2.
It takes a hooker-with-a-heart (the canny and impressively loud Molly Dunsworth) and a good deal of cartoonish slaying for Rutger to finally give up on his dream of mowing lawns and, instead, take up arms. Perhaps Scum Town should have thought twice about moving on the shopping- trolley-pushing hero.
Hobo With a Shotgunworks hard to extend it's beautifully formed high concept into feature length. At a commendably lean 86 minutes, this newest faux- ploitation is just enough fun for the joke to feel stretched though not worn through. Aimed squarely at stoners, teens and movie geeks, it might not be grown up or clever, but only a fool would say no to Rutger Hauer with a pump-action shotgun.
