★★★★★★★★★★6/10

Canada has a great tradition of shotguns and hobos, especially little ones. So it’s only fitting that Nova Scotia produces an exploitation film featuring both. Rutger Hauer plays the new-in-town hobo. When he defends a street-walker named Abby from an attack, he brings the wrath of the local depraved crime lord, the Drake and his two thug sons Slick and Ivan. He gets a shotgun and starts dispensing justice one shell at a time.

This is a fairly straightforward exploitation and grindhouse film. Blood and gore are frequent but manageable. The film is fairly tight with the plot. Mind you we should be surprised that a plot even exists for a grindhouse horror. The first half an hour seemed to drag but once the hobo has a shotgun, it’s fun times from that point.

The story is set a fictional town named Hope City. The outdoor sets were a bit laughable and distracting. The graffiti looks like it’s still drying. I know it’s hard to make a Canadian city look decrepit but it must be very hard with a city like Halifax.

Acting wise, it’s tough to judge since the genre is all about bad and over acting. Rutger Hauer does homeless well and is the sort of crazy you’d imagine a hobo with a shotgun would be like. Villain wise, it’s nothing out of the ordinary except for a pair of Mad Max post apocalyptic armor guys named the Plague.

My favourite scene, the hobo disinfects Abby's neck wound with vodka.

Two fake trailers were made for the 2007 film Grindhouse. Machete became a film and it was only a matter of time before Hobo with a Shotgun got its own film. The writer of Hobo is the same writer that did the fake trailer. This time he takes the directing reins too. Surprisingly both Machete and Hobo are entertaining films. Hobo is a slightly better film than Machete but it lacks the massive amount of stars in that film. This isn’t a masterpiece by any means, it’s just a bit of brainless fun.

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