Don’t get a Sucker Punch, go for a Hobo with a Shotgun

If you’re going to make an exploitation film, there’s the wrong way and then there’s the right way.

Or, Sucker Punch and Hobo with a Shotgun, respectively.

Sucker Punch
Starring Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Carla Gugino and Scott Glenn
Written by Zack Snyder & Steve Shibuya
Directed by Zack Snyder
Score: 2/5

Zack Snyder’s much-anticipated Sucker Punch delivers an insult to the audience best summed up by its title. The film follows Baby Doll, abused by a wicked stepfather and accused of killing her little sister, as she is committed to an insane asylum for insanely hot girls between the ages of 18 and 25. Due to some backdoor shenanigans orchestrated by the evil stepdad, Baby Doll is due to be lobotomized in five days so she can’t lay claim to her mother’s inheritance or otherwise cause him issues. As a means of coping, Baby Doll (played by an all-growed up Emily Browning of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events) retreats into two different fantasy lands to conceive and complete an escape.

In its execution, the plot is so thin it’s anorexic. While trying to be a fetishistic, action-oriented attempt at Inception-style storytelling, the film loses all coherence as Baby Doll’s tale traverses three different levels of consciousness. There’s the mental asylum she’s committed to (which you don’t see much of), there’s the burlesque whorehouse (where much of wanting plot develops) and then a fantasy land with warrior chicks brandishing big guns and binding bustiers in battle against creations you’d expect to see in the latest issue of Heavy Metal magazine.

With Inception, there was reason and purpose to navigate the deeper levels of consciousness that propelled the story along. With Sucker Punch, the reason is merely Baby Doll’s need for escape. Sure, girls fighting steampunk Nazis, fire-breathing dragons and robots can look cool, but knowing the action is all just a fantasy (of a fictional on-screen character, no less) gives it absolutely no narrative weight and no reason for a viewer to be invested.

Make no mistake; Zack Snyder knows how to make a visually appealing film. Yet in trying to tell a story over three levels of consciousness, the film collapses under the weight of its own ambition, forming a black hole where the cost of your movie ticket is hopelessly lost. Had Zack been smart enough to stick with building a story around the Heavy Metal-esque action sequences alone, he might have had something worth watching.

Hobo with a Shotgun, on the other hand, delivers exactly what it promises and a whole lot more.

Hobo with a Shotgun
Starring Rutger Hauer, Molly Dunsworth, Bryan Downey and Robb Wells
Written by John Davies, Rob Cotterill and Jason Eisener
Directed by Jason Eisener
Score: 4/5

Based on their mock-trailer produced for Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse competition at the 2007 South by Southwest Film Festival, Canadian director Jason Eisener has crafted a film that’s filthy, fantastic and fun for a budget of $3 million.

The eponymous character of the film (the ever-wonderful Rutger Hauer), arrives on a train hoping to make a new life for himself by panhandling enough money to buy a lawnmower and start a grass cutting business. Along the way, the Hobo tries to keep clear of “Scumtown’s” ever-present criminal element, until he tries to protect hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold Abby (an OK Molly Dunsworth) from Slick and Ivan (Gregory Smith and Nick Bateman), sons of local crimelord Drake (the scenery-chewing Brian Downey). Finally pushed too far during a robbery, the Hobo passes on the lawnmower, buys a shotgun and begins cleaning up the streets “one shell at a time”.

Hobo with a Shotgun never takes itself too seriously, which is the secret to its success. The dialogue is knowingly laughable, the action more gory and over-the-top with each new sequence and the Canadian cameos remind smart viewers where the film was made (a fact brought home best by the song that plays over the end credits). The many promises of the original Hobo with a Shotgun trailer are fulfilled with gusto, firing off loads of great one-liners and memorable deaths, including a well-deserved end for one pedophilic Santa Claus.

Lots of reviewers that have enjoyed Hobo with a Shotgun have tried to justify their feelings by describing the film as a new take on class warfare in North America. Those people need to calm down and shut up. There’s no need to feel so guilty about this guilty pleasure. It’s not trying to say much, but it does one thing that more directors should take note of:

It lives up to the promise of its own promotion.

If only more films could do the same.