HIGH RISK (1981)

Early 80's actioner about four Americans who think that it would be wise idea to fly down to South America and rob a drug lord (James Coburn) of 5 million dollars cash.  That makes absolutely no sense, but whatever, I'll watch it.  Who knows? Maybe it'll be exciting...it's not.  HIGH RISK is about on par with an episode of "The A-Team", except that it's 94 minutes long and lacks the chemistry of Hannibal and crew.

Within the first 25 minutes, our four have arrived in Columbia and successfully stolen the money, but now comes the hard part: getting back to their plane.  Not only do they have the drug goons after them but they also have to fight the harsh environment and a trigger happy group of rebels lead by Anthony Quinn.

Bland action scenes, silly story, mild pace...my biggest question is how they hell did the filmmakers get such an impressive cast for what turned out to be a pretty mediocre story?  If you're into these type of films then you might like it, but it just wasn't my bag.

If you need me I'll be in my room watching COMMANDO.

CANDY (1968)

Very hit-or-miss string of surreal vignettes about a sexy teenage girl who comes from space and ends up messing with a whole bunch of dudes. That might sound like the plot to a porno, but unfortunately CANDY is very tame.  There's not even any nudity!

A wiggly light comes down from outer space and lands in the desert. It takes the form of an attractive teenage girl. Then bam! She's in high school.  A great poet (Richard Burton) shows up and before long she's half naked on the pool table in her basement kissing Ringo Starr while Burton gets busy with a mannequin on the floor.  Suddenly Gomez Addams walks in! And that's just the first few minutes of the movie! It only gets weirder, much weirder, from there on. Everything but the kitchen sink is thrown in and somehow it actually works for the most part, especially the final few minutes which, I thought, were pretty awesome.

Some people might complain that it's bewilderingly incoherent mess and they would be 100% correct, but looking at it from a historical viewpoint, CANDY is a remarkable look into whatever kind of weird counter-cultural bullshit was going on back in 1968. If you are at all curious about the stranger, more psychedelic corners of 60's cinema then you should check it out.  Also, Richard Burton's crazy hair looks a lot like Bill Murray's crazy hair at the end of KINGPIN.