The best, most successful and entertaining heist movies are the ones that roll up their sleeves, spit on their hands, and promptly get down to thrilling brass tacks with topmost immediate urgency and a refreshing lack of momentum-killing pretense. This crackerjack number sure does the above cited correct thing in a neatly taut, streamlined and economical manner thanks to Stuart Rafill's proficient direction and a laudably terse, padding-free script. Four desperate, engagingly scruffy and nervous unemployed blue collar schmoes -- rugged macho man James Brolin, agreeable go-along-to-get-along nice guy Bruce Davison, funky black smartaleck Cleavon Little and excitable worrywart Chick Vennera -- go to South America to rob a sexy $5 million from casually ruthless drug lord James Coburn (who's fine in a juicy villain role which allows him to radiate calmly malevolent menace from every laid-back evil pore). Of course, the caper doesn't go off without any foul-ups occurring: Little and Vennera are nabbed by Coburn's flunkies while Brolin and Davison run afoul of a comically inept bandito gang led by the ever-hammy Anthony Quinn. Okay, so the basic premise isn't terribly original. Fortunately, the swiftly efficient execution, lots of spot-on sassy humor, perils aplenty, and the uniformly sound acting fully compensate for the admittedly trite story. The vastly underrated Brolin once again proves he's got the essential rough'n'tumble stuff to cut it as a sturdy action lead, Davison, Little and Vennera lend expert support as Brolin's plausibly reluctant and out-of-their-element pals, erstwhile Bionic Woman Lindsay Wagner further compliments the already pretty jungle scenery as the token feisty extraneous babe, and Ernest Borgnine contributes a funny cameo as a bluff illegal arms dealer. Trim, rousing and well worth checking out.
Review of High Risk
