Sometimes you can stumble across a good film in the cheap pile at the store or online. For a dollar I picked up High Risk, not just because of the price, and the stars (James Coburn, James Brolin, Clevon Little, Ernest Borgnine, Anthony Quinn, Lindsay Wagner!), but the high recommendations that I got from friends who share my eccentric tastes in films. The opening credits immediately establishes the plot -- four guys get together for a seemingly innocent weekend of fishing and hunting, when in fact they are heading down to Columbia for an improbable heist of five million dollars from a local drug lord. James Brolin is the leader of the bunch, tired of the years of hard work for little pay, and dreams of a big pay off. His partners in crime - Clevon Little (yes, from Blazing Saddles), Bruce Davison and Chick Venerra. Ernest Borgnine is the arms dealer who provides them with a small arsenel to defend themselves, and they hook up with a charter plane run by two ex hippy vets who fly them down to Columbia. They parachute down, and gathering their things, they proceed to the drug lord's headquarters. They break in, steal the money right from drug lord James Coburn, and take off. The resulting gunfight and chase splits the group into two - Little and Venerra are captured by the local police, and tossed in a filthy local town jail, where they make friends with another American, Lindsay Wagner. Little and Venerra convince a couple of locals to bust them out of jail, and they take off in their underwear - their clothes were used as the rope to pull off the bars. Wagner follows. They escape on a bus, and head off towards their arranged meeting place, with their share of the money. Brolin and Davison have a harder time. They run into local bandits, headed by Anthony Quinn, who take their money, beat them up and threaten to kill them. They escape, taking some weapons, and Brolin convinces his partner to go after them to get the money. In the middle of the night they attack, killing a couple of the bandits and making off with the money. They all reunite at a waterfall, near the place where the airplane will come to pick them up. Quinn and the bandits are not to be deterred, for they are in hot pursuit, and wound two of the Americans, but Brolin fends them off long enough for them to get a head start. They reach the plane, but it is an old rusty hulk. The bandits seemingly have them cornered, but Coburn and his cartel manage to disrupt things when they show up, and the resulting shootout thins both enemy parties. During this time, the cavalry finally shows up, in the form of the American plane and the two ex vets launching into Vietnam mode, as they lay waste to the cartel and the bandits with bombs and heavy machine gun fire. The Americans jump on board, injured, scared, with one extra passenger (Wagner), and five million richer. The end.The plot ain't Shakespeare, nor is it Alister MacLean. It's a no nonsense, non stop action film that doesn't pause for believable story, it just runs with what it has and asks the viewer to enjoy the ride. I found it to be a fun, ninety minute diversion that satisfied my need for a little humor, a lot of action, and nothing to try my grey matter. There should be more films made like this today, but everybody is too busy attempting to make masterpieces or epic films. This was an independently made film made around 1980, with name actors and a decent budget. Recommended!
