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24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Clever, hilarious, and surreal parody of Italian Westerns, February 20, 2002
Alex Cox's "Straight To Hell" is such a strange and unique pop film that I'm not quite sure how to go about reviewing it. Perhaps if I can break down the elements. The film is based round the time of its release and deliberately has all the cliches of the typical 1960s Italian "Spaghetti" Western; the mood, humour, and style is like that of Jim Jarmusch (who plays "Mr. Dade" in the film), David Lynch, and the Coen Brothers; and the cast is a wonderfully entertaining group of New Wave/Punk Icons and edgy, idiosyncratic character actors; the plot: 3 Hitmen and a pregnant girlfriend oversleep and miss their scheduled "hit" and deside to rob a bank to make up for the loss of money, which leads them to hide out and bury the money; the setting: a virtual "Ghost Town" in Spain--I say virtual, but there are a few occupants: a Spanish tavern keeper, hardware/general store owners consisting of a sexy Latin lady and her war-crazed, half-a-man husband, a Priest and Coffin maker, a mobile butler who consitently serves coffee, a flamboyant singer (ala Liberace), a singer/songwriter who sells hot dogs, the gun-slinging, violent, and caffeine-addicted Mac Mahon Gang, and a few crazed others. Acknowledging the cast during the film is quite fun in itself, from Joe Strummer, Sy Richardson, Dick Rude, Elvis Costello, The Pogues (all of 'em!), Courtney Love, Jim Jarmusch, Dennis Hopper, Xander R. Berkeley, and Grace Jones to others who you'll probably see in a Jim Jarmusch film or in Alex Cox's Sid & Nancy. The soundtrack is a pseudo-Western and Latin mixture of Pogues, Pray For Rain, and Joe Strummer, which works excellently in the film, as well as outside it. Cult stars, guns, black humour, violence, coffee, and a surreal Italian Western setting is what's in store when you go "Straight To Hell". Hilarious!
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
¿Ningunas drogas aquí, el derecho?, May 12, 2001
DAY ONE - THE INTRO Definitly one the most ill-received and underated movies of it's time. I first heard it was going to be realesed on DVD a couple months after the (awesome but lacking in the extra's) Repo Man Collector's Edition came out. I was excited, since all I had was the shoddy first edition VHS tape, which neither pan's or scans and just sits in the middle of the screen cutting off about 50% of every shot (not to mention the opening credits - for years I thought it was was called, RAIGHT TO HE) DAY TWO - THE MOVIE This is a movie for people who like movies out of the ordinary. Hell, this movie is just flat out fun to watch. I mean whats not to like; Senseless Violence, Schickzo Storeowners, Inept Hitmen, Even More Inept Gang Members, Cheesy One-Liners, Clever Swearing, Amazing Photography, Beautiful Set-Designs, Badass Acting, and the WIENER KID!. Not to mention Blood, Money, Coffee, Guns, and Sexual Tension. Reviewers slammed it hard when it first came out, hopefully this time they'll look at the movie for what it is and realize it's comedic genius, it's ground-breaking design, and it's overall greatness. Oh yeah if you don't know the story it's basically this; three hitmen and an overly-annoying girl (played by pre-star, post-stripper, pre-plastic surgery-miracle, Courtney Love, in the only good thing she's ever done), who makes Nancy Spungeon look like Mother Teresa, blow a hit, rob a bank, and hide out in a small, desert town inhabited by a gang of coffee addicted outlaws named the McMahons, a killer caberet singer, a sadly misunderstood weiner kid, a bar keep who finally get's some business, a priest with more bullet belts than John Rambo, a crazy sadistic storeowner with a hot french wife, and the town butler who makes sure everyone has a fresh cup of coffee at all times, no matter the sercumstance. DAY THREE - THE DVD The picture and sound on this disc are going to get a 10 out of 10 no matter what, since all my tape does is skip and hiss. But the picture on this is excellent, as well as the color and contrast, it's like watching it in a theatre. The sound is clear as can be and it is presented in widescreen format at 1:85:1 ratio. The difference between this and the video is night and day. There's only 3 extras one the disc but they are each interesting in their own right, I only wish they included some deleted scenes and onset (I think Anchor Bay is against this for some reason). First up, the Audio Commentary with Alex Cox and Dick Rude, not the most groundbreaking commentary but it is very funny and an interesting listen. They both joke on the movie, each other, and some of the cast. Also, you get to here some pretty cool stories about the filming and the people involved with the movie. Alex and Dick also teach an important life lesson, when in need of a comedic moment, just throwing a rock and hitting someone is a surefire way to get a laugh. Next is the very cool 20+ minute documentary called Back to Hell, in which they go and interview about 15 or so of the cast and crew and ask them some questions about the movie. Here, you get to here some hilarious stories (most of which involve the maming of Zander Schloss, who, by the way, finally hit puberty), there were parts in here that had me killing myself laughing. There's a couple of deleted scenes thrown in for good measure as well. Finally, there's a short video promo(for the studio who produced the movie, I presume) of the Pogues version of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly theme made up of clips from the movie and home video footage of the making of it. My only complaint of the entire DVD is the cover.... uggghk. The thing looks like a grade 8 student who's project was to make a video cover using only Photoshop and a copy of Pulp Fiction. Personally they should have stuck with the original video cover of the Joe Strummer drawing with the town burning in the background. Which is sadly, nowhere to be found in the contents of the DVD, they do however include a tiny mediocre japanese poster featuring some of the cast members and the soundtrack (and original poster) artwork. FINAL DAY - THE LAST COMMENTS If your a fan of Alex Cox or a fan of cult cinema in general, I highly suggest you pick this up. If you have the old VHS version, toss it out (photocopy the cover first then glue in on the DVD case) and get this instead.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hysterically funny reviews, July 16, 2006
Yup, this film--which happens to be one of my all-time faves--is not for everyone. Way back a bit before Sting and Bono gave a whole new meaning to the idea of pompous jerk, British punker musicians brought a real Midlands working class sense of irony and absurdity to the world--often not only through their music but through their stage chatter. Some of the flat-out funniest people I've ever encountered were punkers from the Eighties. The single-most un-funny human I've ever known was a major league grunge performer, and let's not even go near modern rappers and the whole EMO phenomenon. In other words, if you're a Post-Eighties kid this movie probably won't work well for you as you're probably soaked in earnest and dreary. A Brit recently told me that Americans have totally lost their sense of irony. There you have it.
The premise of this film was brilliant--let's take a bunch of Brit rockers to Spain (because a concert gig in Central America fell through), write a script in two days, and make a Spaghetti Western using a dilapidated old set from the early 70's. This couldn't happen today for a variety of reasons, one being that a bunch of musicians with any public reputation wouldn't put up with the lousy accommodations in order to have a bit of fun. Then there's that sense of humor thing again, I can't think of any performer today who could pull off what (just to give a few examples) Joe Strummer and all the Pogues do here. They probably lived on Pepsi and hot dogs for the three weeks it took to shoot this wonder, and they probably didn't give a hoot. And then again, this couldn't have happened back then with American punkers who tended to be snots. I think we stopped being funny a long time ago.
The pace is slow because the film does a great job of emulating its models; mainly those classic Clint Eastwood films. So there. However, it's beyond mere parody and there's plenty of terrific slapstick and just goofy humor all the way through the flick. It's one of those films where there are almost too many memorable vignettes--a bit where Strummer is in a clinch with a gal and his gun accidentally goes off and he has to fake having been bitten by a snake is, for me, one of the classic funny moments in film. The soundtrack alone (at least until kids who are easily bored started writing reviews for Amazon) was, for many years, considered to be classic. The, uh, "violence" is farcical and hardly graphic; also, to have fun, they scrupulously avoided obscenity and nudity in the film, which is what everybody expected from this gang. I understand it got an R rating almost by accident.
Anyway, I love Buster Keaton, the Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields, and all those screwball comedies of the 1930's and this film is one of my favorites. Elsewhere in Amazonia another youngster expresses her boredom over the Cary Grant collection that includes "The Awful Truth"--a flick that rivals Shakespeare. Need I write more?
Some day, when all us tedious Americans who think humor is sadism, making fun of people, and/or doing disgusting things (the lowest forms of humor by the way) are all dead and gone, and the country is full of newcomers who can find genuine joy and laughter in things, this film will be regarded as a classic.
[Raegen Butcher down below gets it dead right by describing this film as a people-sorter in the manner of "Big Trouble in Little China"--a gem that is for me up there with "Gone With the Wind" and "Citizen Kane." I generally find that anyone who doesn't like "Big Trouble" or this flick puts ME to sleep in minutes. And while I'm at it, what's with these one-star reviews because something bores you? Everybody I know under the age of thirty these days is bored by anything that isn't exploding in their faces. It tells me more about the reviewer than the product being reviewed]
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