High Risk

To the accompaniment of news bulletins dispensing gloom about inflation and unemployment, an out-of-work cameraman (Brolin) collects three similarly situated buddies for an improbable raid on the Colombian hacienda of dope-dealer Coburn. Veering between comic caper and homily on the danger of living out depression fantasies, High Risk has something of an identity problem. For all his bull-slaying bravado, the suavely sinister Coburn proves to be just a paper tiger, while Quinn and a band of corrupted revolutionaries provide little more than light relief. There are nicely observed moments - the trepidation with which these 'ordinary Americans' confront the necessity for violence, their righteous indignation at being taken for CIA agents ('Christ, we're on Welfare!') - but they do tend to get lost in a finale of dago-bashing heroics.