Hobo with a Shotgun
Magnet Releasing | Release Date: May 6, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
6
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
IndieWireEric KohnMay 4, 2011
Loaded to the gills with thrill-inducing mayhem, Hobo with a Shotgun feels almost tribal in its commitment to violence. Read full review
80
MovielineJen YamatoMay 5, 2011
Hit the B-movie sweet spot just right, as Jason Eisener mostly does in his gleefully gory Hobo with a Shotgun, and you could find yourself living the dream. Read full review
80
VarietyAndrew BarkerMay 2, 2011
One must grudgingly admire director Jason Eisener's willingness to go over the top and beyond, and the film certainly delivers what it promises. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 5, 2011
Moralists, beware. Hobo looks like a garish cartoon puked up by a filmmaker overstuffed with cheap thrills and celluloid scuzz. What's not to like? Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayMay 5, 2011
It's a hyper-violent, self-conscious throwback, with the sickly plastic aroma of a tape that's been gathering dust in the corner of a video store since 1984. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyMay 2, 2011
In its mocking but acutely observed style, Hobo is a well-designed cinematic mess: There are whiplash jump cuts, patches where the sound almost disappears, and the whole thing is projected in a queasy, faded Technicolor. Read full review
70
NPRScott TobiasMay 6, 2011
There's something pure about the crude pleasures of Hobo with a Shotgun, a pre-fab cult film that aspires to nothing more (or less) than the red-meat feeding of a feral midnight-movie audience. Read full review
70
The New York TimesMike HaleMay 5, 2011
Only for those with a truly bottomless appetite for gore and fan-boy humor. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMay 2, 2011
There's something appealing about the movie's unpretentious carnival of carnage, although I could have done without the flamethrower assault on a school bus to raise the stakes. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDuane ByrgeMay 2, 2011
A generic blast, Hobo with a Shotgun unspools like a spaghetti western but amped with enough testosterone to fill a video-game warehouse. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumMay 4, 2011
There's a pomo twist to the whole overeager enterprise, in all its theoretical, film-school charm: Similar to 2010's "Machete," the movie was born from a fake 
 trailer commissioned by Grindhouse directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichMay 3, 2011
Two monologues-one in which the Hobo compares himself to a bear, the other a Travis Bickle–like screed delivered to a roomful of increasingly distressed babies-are damn near Shakespearean. It's a shame the performance is contained in a Z-movie patchwork that's a bit too knowingly repugnant. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineSteve RamosMay 2, 2011
Hobo is trash cinema through and through and gives fans everything they want from a drive-in throwback. That's something that doesn't happen often. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJul 2, 2011
A continuous parade of slaughter. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianShawn LevyMay 19, 2011
There's plenty of blood and screaming and mayhem, and it's not particularly well-staged, shot or cut -- though I suppose actually caring about film craft denotes one as a spoilsport in this context. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMark HolcombMay 3, 2011
Pick a reason to balk at this spot-on, garishly threadbare paean to '80s no-budget sleaze. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovMay 5, 2011
It's an ode, of sorts, to Seventies grindhouse cinema, curdled and gooey and tailor-made for midnight showings (preferably with a crowd, preferably intoxicated). Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 28, 2011
Hopefully the last, of the fake trailer spinoffs of 2007's "Grindhouse." It makes last year's "Machete" look like "The King's Speech." Read full review
38
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreMay 11, 2011
Hobo hits the screen as a grim, visually ugly, intermittently funny-occasionally preachy piece with only the estimable Mr. Hauer to recommend it. Read full review
25
New York PostV.A. MusettoMay 6, 2011
Japan's Takashi Miike has the formula down pat, but Eisener has no idea how to give violence a touch of class. Read full review
0
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliMay 27, 2011
Is it good bad? Nah. It's just bad. It's so bad it makes "Machete," the other movie based on a mock trailer from "Grindhouse," look like high-gloss Kubrickian satire. Read full review
0
ObserverRex ReedMay 3, 2011
Quite the most appalling piece of junk I have seen lately, Hobo With a Shotgun just lies there like an autopsy. Read full review
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