Rob Hardy / Silhouette Staff

Last December saw the demise of a much beloved institution for many in Burlington and the surrounding area: the closing of the multiplex cinema at Upper Canada Place. The cinema first opened in 1985, run by Cineplex Odeon. As changes in the industry occurred, it was taken over by Encore Cinemas in 1999. For those of you who have never had the pleasure, let me say a bit about what made the movie-going experience there so great.

First of all, the site was located in the heart of beautiful downtown Burlington. Personally, I absolutely loved the layout of this multiplex. It was comfortable and cozy, with a wonderful atmosphere, friendly people and amazingly clean restrooms. The first film I saw there was the Oscar-winner Dead Man Walking. With eight screens, it was big enough to find something to suit your taste and had frequent show times. For those of you from the area, many of whom felt the same, you know what I mean and may be disheartened to hear this news if you weren’t already aware.

The loss has many implications. For one, the ticket prices, as well as concessions, would have knocked some on their backside if they arrived there unprepared for how economical a night at the movies could still be. It was also a wonderful venue for family movie days, especially those who couldn’t afford being fleeced by the consumer mausoleums that now charge nearly fifty bucks for two tickets and “value” combos. Furthermore, it was a great alternative to those who like a quieter atmosphere and didn’t mind seeing films that were a month behind their release date. (I mean, who cares?)

The reason it closed is that the film industry is now moving away from projectors and switching to digital formats, an upgrade that wasn’t financially viable for the theatre. Although that’s understandable, no time was wasted in making plans to gut the place. Even though many people now have home theatres, the appeal of going to the movies has always been so much more than the film itself. It is the actual “going out” part and being in a social setting that makes for a swell night. Knowing that rents have to be paid and foreseeing dwindling prospects, the decision was made to close up shop.

So where does that leave us? Well, despite population increases, we have seen a drastic decline in the number of area movie theatres. Famous Players in Stoney Creek closed down its Fiesta Mall location in 2001, saying it was looking for new opportunities. The replacement that was eventually built years later was not the sort to offer bargain ticket prices, and was snugly set in a shopping consortium that hopes to snag even more of your consumer dollars. It is also many miles away from the previous site – too big of a challenge for those without transportation to get to.

Since then, the location at Upper James has closed as well, along with the cinemas at Centre Mall and Limeridge Mall, Burlington’s Harvester location and the older movie house on Concession Street.

What we are left with, aside from the trio of bigger area Silver City buildings all cajoling for our business is Jackson Square and the single-screen Westdale option. There are times when it’s nice to sit in newer auditorium-style seating, but we also like having choices. And considering the Hamilton/Burlington area has nearly three-quarters of a million people, there are surprisingly almost none now other than the cookie-cutter chains that have helped create this scarcity.

And since going to the movies is no longer old school or authentic, you’re then bound to have the same routine of eye-popping prices, ear-popping speakers and less of an intimate experience every time you go. Maybe that’s why I not only haven’t been to the movies in over a year, but find myself less interested in them period.

Because after all, many movies are now also produced to cater to the movie-going environments being promoted these days, thereby alienating those of us whose idea of a night out isn’t putting on glasses and feeling like we are in a video game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hobo With a Shotgun
Directed by: Jason Eisener
Starring: Rutger Hauer, Brian Downey

3 out of 5

Myles Herod
Entertainment Editor

If you are going to make a horror film, go for broke. Indulge in its foreboding dread, accentuated shadows, excessive gore, and immoral integrity. Just don’t cop out. While it is frustrating to see a film cheat its intended audience, there is nothing worse than it ruining an entire genre.

Horror films of the Northern American mold have suffered greatly. Neutered, branded, and left sanitized by the PG 13 rating, an ever-growing conservatism has sought to make these pictures tamer and more profitable to the masses.

Like watching nostalgia played through a dusty VCR, Hobo With a Shotgun arrives seemingly out of the sewers from a parallel 1980s universe.

Delivering a psychotic fervor, it is comparable to the low-budget, grindhouse pictures it obviously pays homage to. But Hobo With a Shotgun does it better, hell-bent on offending anyone and everyone. Depraved visions of exaggerated gore, mass murder and human entrails wash the screen like an abstract painter to their canvas. Hobo will repel and sicken many, but therein lies its vivacity as a true trash pastiche.

Based off a fake trailer made for Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s movie Grindhouse, Hobo has been fleshed out by director Jason Eisener without noticeable lag. The story follows a nameless hobo (Rutger Hauer) riding a train into HellTown, a city of poverty and rampant corruption, controlled by a villainous cretin named Drake (Brian Downey).

Alongside his berserk sons, Slick (Gregory Smith) and Ivan (Nick Bateman), they find gratification in breaking bones, setting children on fire, and drowning their noses in ludicrous amounts of cocaine.

While mayhem engulfs the city streets, the hobo, with the help of a gold-hearted hooker (Molly Dunsworth), decides justice comes with a shotgun, one shell at a time.

Cranked to the limit, from acting to camera compositions, the film leaves little time to digest everything that is thrown on screen. It is not enough to be slightly deranged in order to conceive a movie like Hobo With a Shotgun – it takes passion.

A vagrant who disposes of scum with a shotgun is too easy. To succeed on this level of vileness takes a sense of humour, juggling tones of comedy, graphic violence, and the human condition.

Apart from providing the crackling vigilante storyline, writer John Davies instills Hobo with some unexpected sentiment and oddly memorable monologues from the steely-haired Hauer. Consider the scene in which he is taken back to the hooker’s bed to rest after having a knife thrust into him. As he is given a shirt to wear, the emblem of a cartoon bear adorning his chest causes him recall thoughts on the animal, developing a quiet exchange between both characters, not feeling forced, but instead creating depth.

Credit not only Eisener and Davies for this balance, but also the conviction of Hobo’s cast, invigorating characters beyond the point of simple sketches. Rutger Hauer, a superb talent for the past four decades, creates a lived-in being.

The camera catches his worn face and eyes as Eisener smartly uses it to the film’s advantage. Oddly enough, Hauer’s hobo does not thirst for blood intentionally; he only wants money to buy a lawnmower to start his own grass-cutting business.

Hobo With a Shotgun not only pays tribute to 1970s and 1980s exploitation films, it mirrors the direct-to-video heyday verbatim. Encouraging jeers and cheers, stylistic devices are brilliantly supplied to back the excitement by way of a muffled synthesized score and cinematography saturated in Technicolor graininess.

Although a hard 'R' rating comes accordingly, Eisener thinks outside the box to earn it, devising new ways to destroy the human body with absurd mutilations, shot- gunned castrations, and an ice skate to the torso – all done with tongue firmly placed in cheek.

Some may condemn the film’s perpetual bad taste, but to do so would be to miss its bizarre blending of humour and nightmarish visuals. It is not just enough to have a man decapitated with barbed wire; the film takes it further, having a woman in a white bikini soak and gyrate in his blood.

 

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