The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
Features  |  Reviews

Review: Hobo With A Shotgun

Gut-wrenching rhythms
By PETER KEOUGH  |  May 26, 2011
3.0 3.0 Stars

Like Machete, Jason Eisener's danse macabre started as a two-minute faux trailer in Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse. In order to stretch it to feature length, he ups the outrage, incinerating a school bus full of children, for example, and having someone get stabbed by an exposed ulna. It's funny for a while, but then it's something else. As is Rutger Hauer as the title bum. When he gets off the train in Hope City, all he wants to do is buy a lawnmower and start a new life. He should have seen his error as soon as he noticed "Hope" painted over with "Scum" on the town's welcome sign. Too late, he's involved, and armed with a 12-gauge, he goes about to set things right. Eisener has a knack for the assaultive images and gut-wrenching rhythms of this kind of movie. Mostly, though, it's thanks to Hauer that the film transcends its origins; his performance combines Clint Eastwood in High PlainsDrifter with Lloyd Bridges in Airplane! He's a messiah for our times: ecce hobo.

Related: Review: 13 Assassins, Review: The Double Hour, Review: Cave of Forgotten Dreams, More more >
  Topics: Reviews , Movies, Film reviews, Kendall Square Cinema,  More more >
| More
Add Comment
HTML Prohibited

 Friends' Activity   Popular   Most Viewed 
[ 05/30 ]   Big Freedia + Javelin + What Cheer? Brigade  @ Brighton Music Hall
[ 05/30 ]   The Wombats  @ Hurricane O'Reilly's
[ 05/30 ]   "Elegant Enigmas: The Art of Edward Gorey"  @ Boston Athenæum
ARTICLES BY PETER KEOUGH
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   REVIEW: L'AMOUR FOU  |  May 26, 2011
    Pierre Thoretton's lugubrious portrait of the late Yves Saint Laurent (he died in 2008) begins with a 2002 press conference in which the iconic designer announced his retirement from the world of fashion.
  •   REVIEW: MIDNIGHT IN PARIS  |  May 26, 2011
    Yet this tartly ironic tour of the Modernist playground of '20s Paris is his funniest movie since Deconstructing Harry (1997), the last time he indulged in such a playful conceit.
  •   REVIEW: HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN  |  May 26, 2011
    Like Machete , Jason Eisener's danse macabre started as a two-minute faux trailer in Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse .
  •   REVIEW: THE HANGOVER PART II  |  May 26, 2011
    Amnesia might be the key to enjoying Todd Phillips's reprise of his 2009 hit comedy, since it follows by rote the formula set up in the original.
  •   REVIEW: LEGENDS OF THE FIST: THE RETURN OF CHEN ZHEN  |  May 19, 2011
    Fight sequences and jingoism propel Andrew Lau's period martial-arts melodrama, a formula that can be irresistible despite one's better judgment.

 See all articles by: PETER KEOUGH

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2011 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group