Below Average Joe

Iron man is red;

The T.A.R.D.I.S. is blue;

If I had one one wish;

That wish would be you.

What can really be said about a movie where the entire plot is summed up in the title. This movie falls in the grind house category of films (i.e. Death proof, machete, etc.) So going in I knew it was gonna be excessively gory, gritty, grainy, and plot would be irrelevant if present at all. That being said Hobo with a Shotgun delivers exactly what it promises. A hobo, wielding a shotgun, shooting EVERYTHING. Now I don’t eschew from gore or ultra violence. I love the saw franchise, and enjoyed (as much as one can) the hostel films. This movie however pushes the boundaries of gore and gross out moments. The gore isn’t as bothersome as some of the random gross points. at one point a character (no spoilers) loses a hand and uses the exposed bone to lift a manhole cover. True its gory and violent, but more of the imagining my mind does of how that would feel makes that scene horrifying. That being said, I did enjoy this film. It is surprisingly well shot, given the content. The plot is there but not exactly important, but I expected as much. the actors are sub par at best, with the exception of Rutger Hauer, his role as a drunken insane hobo is amazing, perhaps because he himself is a drunken insane man.

Blu-Ray Review: Shocking amount of special features for a straight to DVD film. Also an interactive movie mode.

Overall suggestion: WATCH this movie, probably don’t need to buy

Allow me to precursor my review with the following statement. I went into this movie with low expectations. I heard lots of good things about this movie on the Podcast ‘Doug Loves Movies’ from both Doug Benson, and Edgar Wright. Now I respect both of these men greatly. Doug Benson is a brilliant stand up comedian, and Edgar Wright is one of my favorite directors of all time. So when they both gave it rave reviews i decided that i would buy it the day it hit Blu-Ray seeing as it wasn’t in theaters in my area. Then i started seeing some other reviews for it, and saw a T.V. Spot. My hopes were kinda brought down, from the average reviews, and the very poorly assembled T.V. Spots. Yet I was still resolute to view this movie.

Real review starts here.

From the beginning to end, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It starts off simple enough, some hooligans see an alien, it attacks one so they fight and kill it. It brings about an alien invasion. and they must defend there home. It has a B-movie Vibe, which to me is a good thing. The visual effects on the aliens is amazing. They look familiar, yet different. The plot is a tad standard, no huge surprises, however Attack the block, does it all in a different way, making it very enjoyable. John Boyega (as Moses) steals the show. His character evolution from a hood rat punk into the hero of the block, is phenomenal. He is silent and stoic yet his emotions bleed through. Through out the entire movie you can sense his fear, his sorrow, and ultimately his joy. Not many actors can pull this off, i am excited to see where this kids acting career takes him. There is a scene where the group goes into one of the girls flats, several of the aliens attack.This is my personal favorite scene. Moses is forced to man up, throw away his fear, and fight. Some people may be turned off by the extreme use of British slang and idioms, but do not let that deter you. This movie is probably going to be going on my top 10 list of the year. I honestly cannot recommend this enough. If you have the time, pick this up.

As for a review of the Blu-Ray: commentary, some unshot scenes, some neat behind the scenes stuff but not much.

Overall Suggestion: BUY this movie.

So for those who don’t follow me on twitter (@Nerdpocalypse) every week I buy a new bluray. Sometimes its one of the new releases some times its an older classic movie, but regardless I have a few blurays. One of the blogs I’m gonna be doing for my site is bluray reviews. The reviews are gonna be of the bluray itself, not the movie it contains but the special features, commentary, etc. Now since I got quite a few blurays and I’m just starting the reviews I decided to do one line reviews. In essence I’m gonna review each bluray in 3 sentences or less. ending with either a BUY, MUST BUY or PASS. Again based solely off the special features. not the picture quality, or how good the movie is. If it was based on movie quality these would be different ratings because blurays are the only way to go. But here goes…

Bored to Death - Complete second season: Outtakes, commentaries, and delete scenes. BUY

Breaking Bad - Season 2: Lots of commentary, deleted scenes AND a gag reel. BUY

Breaking Bad - Season 3:Even more features then season 2 AND gag reel. BUY

A Clockworks Orange 40th anniversary:TONS of features and a documentary by Malcolm McDowell about working on it. MUST BUY

D. Gray-man Season one - Part one: 1 commentary that’s it. PASS

Dark Knight - Collectors edition: decent special features not much but no BluRay exclusive ones. PASS

Devil May Cry - complete series: almost no special features. PASS

Doctor Who - Complete 5th series: Deleted scenes, all the confidential episodes, gag reel and much more. MUST BUY

Doctor Who - The Complete Specials: Deleted scenes, David Tennant video diaries and plenty more. BUY

Dragon Ball Z Kai Part one: 0 special features. PASS

Full metal Alchemist: Brotherhood Part One: some commentary but that’s all. PASS

Full metal Alchemist: Brotherhood Part Two: same as part one. PASS

Full Metal Alchemist Conqueror of shambala: Plenty of fun features. BUY

The Hangover: Hilarious picture in picture commentary and gag reel. MUST BUY

Horrible bosses: Lots of special features and commentary all of which excellent. MUST BUY

Jackass 3D: Deleted scenes almost make a new movie, but they aren’t that great. PASS

Metalocalypse Season 3:Special features are fun, music videos are great. BUY

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: WAAAAY more special features than i expected, all absolutely AMAZING. MUST BUY.

Star Wars - The Complete Saga: 3 FULL DISCS of special features. ‘nuff said MUST BUY.

Sucker Punch: I’m a sucker for Zack Snyder’s Maximum movie mode. BUY

Super: fun features, and commentary, more than i would expect from IFC. BUY

THOR: Lots of features, and deleted scenes as good as the movie was. MUST BUY

TRON 5 disc collectors edition: LOTS of features, plus the original tron on bluray. MUST BUY

Venture Bros. 3rd Season: Comes with the soundtrack to the series, commentary on EVERY EPISODE. MUST BUY

Walking Dead - Season one: Lax features and the just released a collectors edition. PASS

X-Men Trilogy:Plenty of worth while features, and commentaries. BUY

X-Men First Class: Few special features and its main special feature is essentially just an X-men data base. PASS

Well that’s all for now. I’ll be doing this feature once every few blurays. hope it goes over well.