VISUAL ARTS

Featuring Joe Strummer, Courtney Love, Shane Macgowan, Elvis Costello, plus cameos by Dennis Hopper, Grace Jones and Jim Jarmusch – for its cast alone, Cox’s 1987 film Straight to Hell has found an audience over the years after its overlooked initial release. But beyond the cult appeal, the film is a loving spoof of spaghetti Westerns, following a trio of hit men who go on the lam from Los Angeles to Mexico in the wake of a botched job. The ensuing comic mayhem involves caffeine-addicted cowboys, sweaty villains, revenge plots and epic gun battles. Twenty years later, Cox re-edited Straight to Hell, restoring several minutes previously cut and adding digitally enhanced gore to the film’s many shootouts. The result is comic lark Straight to Hell Returns, not unlike Beat the Devil gone south of the border.