Review of Hobo with a Shotgun (2011) by Robin M — 18 Feb 2012

There was one unknown trailer that only a few amount of people were able to watch somewhere around the world, while watching the "Grinhouse" at the theaters. Being able to watch the original and re-released trailer on Youtube, I was quite excited to see what this film can deliver. However, what I experienced was a film that I didn't took seriously and completely watched it as what it was meant to be, but ended up not feeling that hype and expectations that I wanted. The plot definitely has that B-movie feel that feels absolutely ridiculous, but still delivering on the enjoyment factor. The film worked really well on presenting itself as this B-movie parody and did a tremendous job of doing just that. I really liked the ideas and the story that the film introduces, but the other features really cause this film to disappoint.

You can tell by watching this film that this film had a very short budget based on the events and the scenes that occur. As said above, the film had some great ideas and I could have imagine what the director tried to do with the particular scenes, but not to bash the film, but I saw more better effects used on a Youtube video. The action, on the other hand, did bring in some good excitement; I actually had a good time watching the Hobo shoot off and committing justice to the villains with his loving shotgun. The director did a good job of adding the action and presenting itself as a B-movie parody. I understand that the dialogue in a B-movie film is supposed to be corny and ridiculous, but the dialogue was absolutely horrible and will not get you laughing. My personal view of the person who wrote the dialogue is a ten year old drop out who constantly plays Grand Theft Auto. The dialogue was just so bad, it was not even laughable and makes the words coming out of those classic B-movie films sound like dialogue written by Quentin Tarantino. The dialogue was absolutely corny and annoyed me to death as I heard those stupid words spoken by the characters; mainly the villains. The only character that paid off speaking that corny dialogue was the Hobo, who pulled off and actually said some laughable one liners that really worked.

Best actor and favorite character has to Rutger Hauer because he was the only actor in the film that can actually act. The hobo is not a complete awesome character, but I liked the character in the film. When it comes to the rest of the cast, I have to say that I was rather annoyed with most of them. As said earlier, I watched this film, expecting what people should expect when watching a B-movie; however, some of the actors were acting way too hard to suck. It was annoying to watch them on screen and it wasn't even laughable to even see these guys suck; especially when it came to the antagonist and his two sons. I don't know why, the guys who portrayed as the characters are not bad actors, but it really felt like they put all their force and might into bringing in the same performance level as the cast in "Twilight." The only girl who mattered in the film was actually okay as her role; she wasn't anything special, but you can tell by watching her performance that she is just acting and not putting too much energy to be Bella.

I tried to watch this film the same way as I watched the "Grindhouse" films, but I couldn't help the fact that the flaws caused the film to distance itself away from that entertainment level that it could have reached. I truly believe that this film could have been awesome, but it just had to suck with actors trying too hard to suck and unproductive scenarios. Some may find this enjoyable, but others will not find this entertaining.