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Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: April 16, 2013

Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95

Studio: Criterino

Emilio Estevez is the nihilistic Otto in Alex Cox's Repo Man.

Alex Cox’s (Searchers 2.0) singular science fiction comedy Repo Man remains the quintessential cult comedy film of the 1980s.

The 1984 movie stars the always captivating Harry Dean Stanton (Seven Psychopaths) as a weathered repo man in desolate downtown Los Angeles, and Emilio Estevez (The Breakfast Club) as the nihilistic middle-class punk he takes under his wing. The job becomes more than either of them bargained for when they get involved in reclaiming a mysterious—and otherworldly—Chevy Malibu with a hefty reward attached to it.

Featuring an ultimate early-eighties L.A. punk soundtrack featuring music from Black Flag, Suicidal Tendencies, The Circle Jerks, Fear and other, the grungily hilarious R-rated Repo Man still rules (while being a politically trenchant take on President Reagan’s domestic and foreign policy)!

Oh,...

Release Date: Dec. 27, 2011

Price: Blu-ray $24.98

Studio: MGM/20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Chloe Webb and Gary Oldman are Sid & Nancy.

Gary Oldman (Harry Potter franchise,) and Chloe Webb (The Newton Boys) continue to live fast and die young in Sid & Nancy: 25th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray, the 1986 music-filled cult film drama’s high-definition debut.

Written and directed by Alex Cox (Searchers 2.0), the British movie tells the tawdry tale of punk band Sex Pistols’ bassist Sid Vicious (Oldman) and his shrieking junkie girlfriend Nancy Spungen (Webb), two social misfits who literally love each other to death. After their initial meeting, Sid falls hard for groupie Nancy, who seduces him with her affection and addiction to heroin. Their inseparable bond to each other and their drugs eventually corrodes the band, sending the pair down a dark road of despair. Out of money, hope and options, the despondent pair hit rock bottom while...

A look at what's new on DVD today:

"Tesis" (1996)

Directed by Alejandro Amenabar

Released by Widowmaker Films

Long out of print, "The Others" director Alejandro Amenabar's debut about a grad student's discovery of a snuff film is being remastered and rereleased by Widowmaker Films.

"Alice in Murderland" (2011)

Directed by Dennis Devine

Released by Brain Damage Films

A year after Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" scared the bejeezus out of kids in multiplexes everywhere, this horror take on Lewis Carroll's classic fairy tale aims to do so intentionally on DVD players around the country.

"America, America" (1963)

Directed by Elia Kazan

Released by Fox Home Entertainment

Elia Kazan's most personal film based on the story of his uncle's immigration to the United States from Turkey, where as a Greek his family is persecuted, was already released as part of last year's Kazan boxed set, but now will be...

Alex Cox's Repo Chick won't be sent to the dumps. The Venice preemed, sequel to Cox's Repo Man is set to get a quick release via Industrial Entertainment in New York City’s IFC Center on January 14th and the Downtown Independent in Los Angeles on January 21st. Gist: A follow-up to the 1984 film Repo Man, this will unfold against the backdrop of the credit crunch and the subprime mortgage crisis in the Us, where repossessions of homes, cars and other forms of property is at a new high. Spoiled rich girl Pixxi De La Chasse has been disinherited due to her irresponsible life. When her car is repossessed, Pixxi becomes the best repo chick around with the help of her entourage; punk grrrl confidante, model; looks bodyguard and flaming stylist. Clueless Pixxi ends up on a wacky train ride which is actually a plot by a terrorist organization.

For the fifth year running, we tally up the Other Year's Best -- the films that made it to DVD (or onto U.S. home video in any format) but not to theatrical, which generally meant they posed too much of a marketing challenge. As in, the films were either too odd, too original, too archival, too subtle, too something. DVDs still stand as our go-to B-movie-distribution stream of choice, although as I've barked every year, video debuts are still not eligible for any year-end toasts or trophies. Except ours.

10. "Parking" (Chung Mong-hong, Taiwan) At first blush a Taiwanese riff on "After Hours," this measured little odyssey is more realistic, evoking those all-night odysseys we've all had, when time evaporates and tiny logistical dilemmas drive us insane and eventually it's morning and something about our lives is different. Chung doesn't spring for laughs when you think he will -- he holds back,...

DVD Playhouse September 2010

By

Allen Gardner

The Girl Who Played With Fire (Music Box Films) Follow up to the hit The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo finds Lisabeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) and Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) joining forces once again as Blomkvist is about to break a story on Sweden’s sex trade, which leads unexpectedly to a dark secret from Elizabeth’s past. Starts off well, then quickly nose-dives into sensationalism and downright silliness, with a pair of villains who are straight out of a Roger Moore-era James Bond film. A real letdown for those of us who felt Dragon Tattoo had finally breathed life into the cinema’s long-stagnant genre of the thriller. Bonuses: English language track; Trailer. Widescreen. Dolby 5.1 surround.

The Killer Inside Me (IFC Films) Michael Winterbottom’s adaptation of Jim Thompson’s classic, and notorious, novel about the psychotic mind of a small town sheriff (Casey Affleck,...

It looks like Criterion isn’t the only name in town when it comes to director centric runs of DVD releases.

According to Cinematical (via The Playlist), San Francisco based DVD distributor Microcinema International has announced that they are set to not only round up a collection of films from cult filmmaker Alex Cox, but are set to release them on DVD.

Best known as the man behind cult hits like the film Repo Man and the fantastic former Criterion release, Sid and Nancy, the series of releases are set to delve deeper into this filmmakers rather interesting canon. The series includes Cox’s sort of but not really sequel to John Ford’s legendary film, The Searchers, called Searchers 2.0, as well as Cox’s Highway Patrolman, Death and the Compass, Three Businessmen, Revenger’s Tragedy, and Straight To Hell Returns, an update to Cox’s film, Straight To Hell.

Microcinema International DVD has acquired six films from that bizarre and elusive British cult director Alex Cox, some of which have never before been available in the United States. First up is Straight to Hell Returns, which is a kind of remix of Cox's Straight to Hell (1987), "featuring enhanced violence and cruelty, and additional shots by cinematographer Tom Richmond." Straight to Hell was an attempt at a cult comedy Western, about a bunch of killers hiding out in a weird town, starring Joe Strummer, Courtney Love, Dennis Hopper, Elvis Costello,Sy Richardson, Shane McGowan, Dick Rude, Jim Jarmusch, and Grace Jones. It never really caught on, but perhaps it will now.

Next is Searchers 2.0 (2007), another comedy with Western overtones. Two former child actors, and veterans of many movie Westerns, take a road trip to get revenge on a sadistic screenwriter who tormented them on an early film. Roger Corman produced.

Among the stars of the upcoming new movie Repo Chick - Alex Cox's so-called "official non-sequel" to his 1984 sci-fi cult classic Repo Man - is Us actor/writer/producer Danny Arroyo. 

The film, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September, is co-produced by David Lynch's production company (Eraserhead, Dune, The Elephant Man, Twin Peaks) and produced by Daren Hicks and Simon Tams (producers of Batman: Dead End, Searchers 2.0, Hunter Prey). 

The official synopsis of the project is: "Against the background of the credit crunch and the subprime mortgage crisis in the Us, where repossessions of homes, cars and other forms of property is at a new high, the repo business has expanded to everything from boats, houses, aeroplanes, small nations...children."  

Jaclyn Jonet stars as the central character Pixxi de la Chasse, a rich girl disinherited by her family for her antics. She ends up...

Venice International Film Festival

VENICE, Italy -- Searchers 2.0, Alex Cox's first feature since 2002's Revengers Tragedy, is a road movie -- ah, we have had so many, some would moan -- but it goes a couple of steps beyond that. On the face of it, it is a tale of revenge and justice. Then, as the reels unfold, it is apparent that there is more nostalgia and longing than mere hard feelings, ingredients to get the work into the commercial circuit. In any case, it is hardly festival material, and even at the Venice Film Festival it was not part of the more serious and academic competition and outside competition sections.

The film opens with a beautiful sunrise in an American countryside. As we go along, there are equally stunning visuals captured to mesmeric effect by cinematographer Steven Fierberg. Aging Mel (Del Zamora) and Fred (Ed Pansullo) fancy themselves actors, but all that they have to their credit is a single performance as child artists in Buffalo Bill vs. Doc Holiday.

That sole appearance was enough for a lifetime, given the nasty experience on the set, where legendary screenwriter Fritz Frobisher (Sy Richardson) savaged them to get them wailing for a particular scene. Mel and Fred obviously have not forgotten the pain. Years later, they find a chance to avenge their humiliation when Frobisher agrees to a Q&A session at a screening of Buffalo Bill vs. Doc Holiday in Monument Valley.

Mel convinces daughter Delilah (Jaclyn Jonet) to drive them on the three-day road trip. The long journey exposes them to each other's idiosyncrasies. There are times when the movie is hilarious, but others when the script seems to be yawning, with not enough happening to keep the road run exciting. The old men's banter about Westerns and heroes like John Ford bores Delilah -- it might bore some of us as well. To add to this, she forgets to bring her nerve-calming medication, and thus suffers from an unusually severe "right-and-wrong syndrome."

Great visuals and peppy music spice up the story, which by itself is threadbare. The performances are even, though sparks of ingenuity can be seen in Richardson, in those scenes where he is confronted by Mel and Fred. The character of Delilah seems largely an embellishment that jars, and one suspects that she was put there in the first place as a relief in an all-male drama.

SEARCHERS 2.0

New Concorde/Cowboy Outfit

Credits:

Screenwriter-director-editor: Alex Cox

Producers: Jon Davison, Daren Hicks, Simon Tams

Director of photography: Steven Fierberg

Production designer: Cecilia Montiel

Music: Dan Wool

Cast:

Mel Torres: Del Zamora

Fred Fletcher: Ed Pansullo

Delilah Torres: Jaclyn Jonet

Fritz Frobisher: Sy Richardson

Running time -- 96 minutes

MPAA rating: R...