User Reviews

(There are Spoilers) Fed up with working for a living and getting nothing for it, except bills and parking tickets, in these high inflationary times four buddies from L.A decide to help themselves and well as the War on Drugs. The four plan to travel down to the steaming jungles of South America and rip off one of the top cocaine dealers on that continent Serrano, James Coburn, thinking it would be a piece of a cake. It wasn't and thats what makes the movie worth watching.

Hard to take yet very entertaining film that has these four soldiers of fortune, together with a little cute white poodle, lead by tough as nails Mr. Stone, James Brolin, get not only involved with the Serrano drug cartel but a gang of mountain bandits. The bandits are lead by by their bumbling and butterfingered leader Mariano, Anthony Quinn, who during the entire time on the screen is seen suffering, depending on the mood he's in, from either a very bad case of saddle sores or of poison ivy in his you know where.

Breaking into Serrano's hacienda Stone and his three buddies Dan Rockney & Tony, Bruce Davidson Clevon Little & Chick Vennera, are shocked to find out that the wily Serrano changed the combination to his safe where he keeps his ill gotten gains, 5 million in US currency and about 20 kilo's of cocaine. Being the determined bunch that they are the four grab Serrano, with what seems like dozens of his bodyguards out to lunch, and force him to open it.

On the run with the Serrano mob as well as the paid off police and military hot on their tails the four split up in the jungle with Rockney & Tony ending up getting captured by Serrano's boys. Later Stone and Dan, who escaped with the cash, get caught by this band of kooky bandits lead by the even kookier and inflamed butt hurting leader Mariano. All is not lost when jailed by the police Rockney and Tony get acquainted with another American languishing in the prison cell next to them Olivia, Lindsey Wagner. All soon escape with both Tony and Rockney losing their shirts, as well as their pants, in the process and make it to the prearranged spot, the jungle waterfall, where their to be picked up and rescued by a cargo plane.

Back in the hill country Stone and Dan end up being worked over by Mariano's men who used their diet of beans hot tamales and high fiber food to their advantage, by gleefully and sadistically breaking wind in their faces, in torturing the two helpless and tied up men. It wasn't until the little dog, who was left behind at Serrano's hacienda, showed up and untied Stone by biting through his hand tied rope that they made their escape without the 5 million,that Mariano and his men took from them; only to come back and rip it back off from Mariano that very night.

The film builds up to it's very happy ending with everyone involved in the big drug & money rip off, including the cute little dog, making it out alive from the jungle, and back to the good old USA. Those out to get and do them in both Serrano and Mariano as well as their bands of bandits drug pushers dealers and enforcers are left holding the bag to the very satisfying music, five years before Arnold Schwarzenegger used it in his action movie "Raw Deal", of "I can't get no Satisfaction".

TITLE: High Risk opened in theaters in the United States on May 1 1981 and the time on this movie is 94 minutes. Starring in this movie was Lindsay Wagner, James Brolin, and Anthony Quinn

SUMMARY: This picture opened in theaters around the country in May of 1981 starring James Brolin as Steve, Anthony Quinn as Marino, The Beautiful Lindsay Wagner as Olivia, James Coburn as Serrano and Ernest Borgine as Clint. This movie is about four Americans that are broke and tired of being poor Steve is the ringleader and gets the other three guys to tell their wives and girlfriends that there going on a fishing trip. So they put the usually things in Steve's truck like sleep bags, fishing poles, nets, and tackle boxes. So Steve and his three friends head down the road until they come to an open field and stops. Along comes Clint who's a side winder who deals in anything from rifles, guns, knives, machine guns and anything else you can use if you're going to drop in on someone. When Steve's three friends find out what kind of firepower there going to need they start to have second thoughts. Steve talks them out of leaving and so they sit and wait until the plane arrives. The plane that there waiting for is going to take them to Mexico where a man named Serrano lives who has millions of dollars in his safe with high walls and guards to watch the place. Therefore, Steve and friends hold up outside of the walls where Serrano hides waiting for the right moment to attack the place. One of Steve's friends has a white female poodle that they lower over the wall to attract the guard dogs in which it does. Therefore, the men go over the walls, sneak in the building, downstairs to where the safe is only to found out that the combination was changed. Therefore, Steve and another man go upstairs to get Serrano to bring him down to open the safe. Steve and his men get the money but while on their way out, they get into s shootout with not only Serrano army but the Mexican Army also and end up in a Mexican Bull Ring with a real live bull. As the men are on the run two of them get caught while Steve and another get away. The two that where caught ended up in one of Serrano cells. Along comes Olivia who has been in one of Serrano cells for a long time. Meanwhile Steve and the man that's with him get caught up by a bunch of bandits. Along comes Marino who's a poor Mexican along with their people who track Steve down and take their money.

QUESTIONS: Will Steve and the man survive these Bandits? What about the two men that is in Serrano custody? What happens to Olivia and does she ever get out of Serrano cuffs?

MY THOUGHTS: I thoughts this was a good movie because it did have adventure, action and drama. I bought this movie because Lindsay Wagner was in it. I wasn't disappointed with her acting or how beautiful she is, I was disappointed that it took almost 30 minutes before we saw her. Her talents were wasted in this movie and someone that looks like she does she be the leading actress. On Lindsay Wagner, I give her 10 weasel stars because I could watch her all day. The movie itself I give 7 weasel stars

While this is set in Colombia, it was filmed south of our border, I mean way down south, nearly into Central America. This is the type of film that actors took not for the challenge of their part or even the salary, but for the experience of going some place unique. The 70's and 80's were filled with B pictures like this where a good percentage of the budget was used to transport and house the cast and crew. "Dust collectors" we used to call these at the Los Angeles video store I worked at, films with one copy that barely moved off the shelf and ultimately made it onto our cheap sale shelf.

Taking advantage of the free trip are several veteran stars and some top names of the 70's. You get the chance to see the very fit Cleavon Little and comic Chick Vennera running around in just their jockey shorts, having escapes from a Colombian prison, trying to rob drug lord James Coburn. They are part of a quad of thieves which also includes James Brolin and Bruce Davison. While down there, they join up with Lindsay Wagner, as far from Jamie Somers as a bionic woman can be.

Ernest Borgnine makes a cameo early in the film, and Anthony Quinn later appears, chasing them all over the countryside. There's lots of really pretty scenery and a ton of action, and there's also a lot of humor. So for an old dust collector that I avoided during my vhs days renting obscure movies to customers, I can say that I would have recommended it to my regular customers who liked comic action movies in exotic settings, but it's basically a one off viewing for me, perfectly entertaining as a popcorn movie but not much else.

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.