When Hauser wants revenge, you're dead already. You just don't know it yet. Hauser is out to kill every member of a Columbian drug organization because they executed his mother & little brothers. So he's a man with a mission, fair enough. The action & killings in this film get pretty hilarious. At one point Hauser locks a bad guy out on the balcony. He sets him on fire and gives him the choice: burn up or jump off the building. Another baddie gets first blown up, then run over by a speedboat (with Hauser at the steering wheel, of course). One more gets hooked up to a helicopter (by Hauser, naturally) and hitches a ride before plunging to his inevitable death. Wonderful! You simply don't mess with the Hauser.
12 Reviews
Don't mess with the Hauser
DEPRESSEDcherry27 February 2021
Wonderfully ridiculous over the top 80's revenge actionfest. It's the usual Hauser standard, rough around the edges, not well made, a bit cringy, but a lot of fun. If you're into the genre and era then it's worth a look.
Delivers the "B" movie goods ......................
merklekranz1 February 2010
Wings Hauser and Robert Tessier provide plenty of action and Branscomb Richmond plays a memorable villain in "No Safe Haven", a revenge movie with lots to offer. You immediately know this is going to be a wild ride, when before the opening credits have rolled, you have guns blazing, cars and buses exploding, and naked babes. The sound track is very creative and adds to the excitement, along with several very humorous scenes. Everything about the film is high energy, and the movie gets real bloody, real fast. It's a treat to see Robert Tessier perfectly cast as an arms dealer, who obviously is proud of his work, and loves to demonstrate his products. There is nothing complicated about "No Safe Haven", it is simply a "B" action film that delivers the goods. - MERK
Revenge movies are always good
krissi69uk26 October 2001
No safe haven was a typical revenge action movie,Wings Hauser in my opinion is highly underrated,he's one of the rare actors who can play both a hero and a villain convincingly,and he is the best thing in this movie aside from some truly nasty deaths,i like revenge movies because most of them are quite satisfying,i.e.the death wish movies,and this film was no exception,violent and better for it,a strange bondesque pre-credit sequence which hasn't really got anything to do with the plot was the oddest thing in the film,but worth at least one viewing if you like a good old-fashioned,action-packed b-movie.
Thank goodness for Wings!
tarbosh2200024 May 2012
Warning: Spoilers
Clete Harris (Hauser) is a CIA agent who is undercover in Honduras, using a remote Peace Corps station for his base. When he finds out his beloved brother Buddy (Campitelli), a star football player, was murdered in a drug deal gone wrong, Clete comes back to America to find the culprit. This evildoer even killed his own mother. It turns out it's psychotic gangster Manuel (Richmond) and his gang of goons. Clete then makes it his mission to track them all down and get revenge. To help him in this mission, he recruits Popeye (Tessier), a survivalist type. They both end up in Bolivia and the final battle ensues.
No Safe Haven starts humorously enough, with Branscombe Richmond screaming while shooting his guns, and a Roger Corman-style "fast motion" car chase follows. Once Wings appears on screen, we remember why we're watching this. He brings his classic charisma in spades. Richmond makes a great baddie, and his over-the-top yelling and drug-running, loan-sharking evilness make you want to see more of his work. He makes a great villain to play opposite the lovable Wings.
Robert Tessier almost steals the movie as the down-and-dirty Popeye. True to his name, he even proudly sports a corncob pipe! Thankfully he also has his no-shirt-and-jean-jacket combo as well to round out his wardrobe. It was nice to see him in a kindlier performance. He can easily play a heavy, as evidenced in Future Zone.
This movie is the only directorial effort to date from Ronnie Rondell, a man well-known in the stunt world. His inexperience shows in some of the pacing - it slows way down before the climax, which is a common pitfall, but the movie becomes an El Presidente flick seemingly out of the blue right at the last minute. While that might seem a bit mundane, the reason, presumably, why it happens in the first place is that Clete and Popeye's revenge mission is so uncontrollable and grandiose, they want to get revenge on cocaine itself! And seeing as how we may have just built this solid, but small B-film up to heights it doesn't really reach, we should mention how clunky some of the acting by the non-leads is. Just check out the Harris mother.
One of the more interesting things about No Safe Haven is the box art. It seems to be a specially posed picture in a studio by Wings. It wasn't taken right from the movie, it is its own photography. And the theme song of the film, played during the end credits is "dream girls", by none other than Isaac Hayes! That was a surprise. Too bad he wasn't in the movie as an actor.
In all, No Safe (as all the cool people call it) is enjoyable because of the main presence of Wings Hauser, and to a lesser extent Robert Tessier and Branscombe Richmond. Without these guys, it would have been a different and more trying experience. Thank goodness for them.
For more action insanity, please visit: www.comeuppancereviews.com
No Safe Haven starts humorously enough, with Branscombe Richmond screaming while shooting his guns, and a Roger Corman-style "fast motion" car chase follows. Once Wings appears on screen, we remember why we're watching this. He brings his classic charisma in spades. Richmond makes a great baddie, and his over-the-top yelling and drug-running, loan-sharking evilness make you want to see more of his work. He makes a great villain to play opposite the lovable Wings.
Robert Tessier almost steals the movie as the down-and-dirty Popeye. True to his name, he even proudly sports a corncob pipe! Thankfully he also has his no-shirt-and-jean-jacket combo as well to round out his wardrobe. It was nice to see him in a kindlier performance. He can easily play a heavy, as evidenced in Future Zone.
This movie is the only directorial effort to date from Ronnie Rondell, a man well-known in the stunt world. His inexperience shows in some of the pacing - it slows way down before the climax, which is a common pitfall, but the movie becomes an El Presidente flick seemingly out of the blue right at the last minute. While that might seem a bit mundane, the reason, presumably, why it happens in the first place is that Clete and Popeye's revenge mission is so uncontrollable and grandiose, they want to get revenge on cocaine itself! And seeing as how we may have just built this solid, but small B-film up to heights it doesn't really reach, we should mention how clunky some of the acting by the non-leads is. Just check out the Harris mother.
One of the more interesting things about No Safe Haven is the box art. It seems to be a specially posed picture in a studio by Wings. It wasn't taken right from the movie, it is its own photography. And the theme song of the film, played during the end credits is "dream girls", by none other than Isaac Hayes! That was a surprise. Too bad he wasn't in the movie as an actor.
In all, No Safe (as all the cool people call it) is enjoyable because of the main presence of Wings Hauser, and to a lesser extent Robert Tessier and Branscombe Richmond. Without these guys, it would have been a different and more trying experience. Thank goodness for them.
For more action insanity, please visit: www.comeuppancereviews.com
"Now we are even!"
lost-in-limbo2 April 2017
There's no safe haven, when Wings Hauser it out for revenge. Which a drug cartel soon finds out. "No Safe Haven" is your typically forgettable 80s action fodder
ridiculously over-the-top in nearly every department from the action set-pieces, clunky dialogues and the villainous bad guys (especially a lip-smacking Branscombe Richmond). Quite reckless, but done with enough panache despite its low-budget frame. It's somewhat slow to begin off, but it does pack a little punch when the frenetic action is transported to an impregnable South American jungle fortress.
After the death of his two younger brothers and his mother at the hands of a vicious drug syndicate, Hauser's CIA agent Clete is a man on a mission. He gets by with plenty of charisma, a touch of intensity (mainly those scenes in the first half when one-by-one he playfully begins picking off the henchmen to make a point) and with the aid of a weapons expert amusingly played by Robert Tessier. Gladly the story stays simple, despite the pointless distractions. Hauser goes about his brutal business accompanied by a screeching rock soundtrack. We know what it wants to deliver and for most part it serves up the stereotypical and cheesy action goods.
After the death of his two younger brothers and his mother at the hands of a vicious drug syndicate, Hauser's CIA agent Clete is a man on a mission. He gets by with plenty of charisma, a touch of intensity (mainly those scenes in the first half when one-by-one he playfully begins picking off the henchmen to make a point) and with the aid of a weapons expert amusingly played by Robert Tessier. Gladly the story stays simple, despite the pointless distractions. Hauser goes about his brutal business accompanied by a screeching rock soundtrack. We know what it wants to deliver and for most part it serves up the stereotypical and cheesy action goods.
Entertaining, but inconsistent "hard-edged" 80's action flick.
Idiot-Deluxe30 November 2016
Warning: Spoilers
No Safe Haven is exactly the type of movie you'd expect to see Wings Hauser show up in. That being said, this is a movie that really has it's moments, unfortunately those moments are diluted by several boring scenes - so be plenty prepared to take the good with the bad, but fret not, the good DOES outweigh the bad. On another casting matter, one that really does wonders for the movie, is the late-great Robert Tessier, one of my all-time favorites of the "That Guy" actor category, who was a distinctive and charismatic character actor, who made a living playing tough guy roles and here he really seems to be enjoying himself as a freelance arms-dealer. Only that's not until the middle of the movie where he comes in and lights up the party.
The basic plot goes as such, when Clete Harris' (Wings Hauser) mother and brothers are brutally murdered by a drug cartel (NFL game-rigging and the loss of 3 million dollars being key plot points), eventually Clete puts the pieces together after an "RJ-47" (apparently some kind of extensive and amazingly detailed background check) is secretly carried out by a friend in high place in the FBI. After that it's all in the name of revenge from there on out - save for a little nooky along the way.
One thing you'll notice is that Clete is damnably diligent in tracking down each and every one of the murderers and is vengeful as hell when he does. In one particular encounter Clete, disguised as a hotel waiter, tracks down one of the killers and once inside the room, turns into a vengeful demon in a bow-tie. The sequence of events goes as such: firstly he holds him at gun point, then punches him to the ground, then for some fireworks, he whips out a can of lighter fluid and empties the entire can onto the killer, then forcibly drags him onto the balcony, whips out his Zippo and sets him on fire, screaming in agony the killer-on-fire jumps from the balcony to his death ten stories down. A pretty "hard-edged" and lurid sequence, but were just getting started, as that's only the first victim. Over the course of the next hour Clete and then later the ever-entertaining Robert Tessier joins in the fun and they go on to assassinate an entire drug cartel and not to forget a certain treacherous ex-girlfriend who has ties to the cartel. Hauser and Tessier make for a ruthlessly efficient duo and the baddies, whether their in the USA or south of the border, do not stand a chance to their brand of vigilante justice. You can definitely file "No Safe Haven" under the sub-category of "scorned-loner-takes-out-the-trash-with-a-vengeance". The kind of movie I can really get into and though Wings Hauser is nowhere near as big a name as Eastwood, Bronson or Stallone, but never the less he certainly takes out the trash in No Safe Haven.
With what's obviously a meager budget, No Safe Haven does quite a bit with it, as the proceedings prove to be colorful and we find ourselves pinballing from one scenario to the next - from explosive speedboat chase's to sleazy backseat tryst's in stripclub parking lots to NFL prime-time game-day flashbacks to infiltrating a drug-lord's compound, which goes up in flames thanks to Clete's handiwork and for good measure they throw in a helicopter shoot em' up sequence to drive home the finale. At the end of it all Clete and Randy kill the bad-guy's, but, in a departure from the movie-formula DON'T get the girl. All in all No Safe Haven is hardly a great movie - but you can certainly do a lot worse. What I really like is how hardcore this movie is in it's most violent moments, watch for the "severed head trick" Clete pulls near the end - now that's using your, er, someones head. Plus I simply seem to like anything that Robert Tessier is in, from "Hard Times" to "The Deep" even terrible bottom-of-the-barrel dreck like David Carridine's "Future Force" has some inspired moments and let's not forget he show's up in one of the all-time best episodes of The A-Team - Robert Tessier (stuntman, actor and former para-trooper) had a colorful career. Lastly, judging by the looks of it, I'd wager that No Safe Haven was a direct-to-video release - but by no means does that mean you can't have fun with it.
No Safe Haven feels like a mash-up of an Andy Sidaris movie and one of your more violent episodes of Miami Vice: drugs, guns and plenty of T & A.
The basic plot goes as such, when Clete Harris' (Wings Hauser) mother and brothers are brutally murdered by a drug cartel (NFL game-rigging and the loss of 3 million dollars being key plot points), eventually Clete puts the pieces together after an "RJ-47" (apparently some kind of extensive and amazingly detailed background check) is secretly carried out by a friend in high place in the FBI. After that it's all in the name of revenge from there on out - save for a little nooky along the way.
One thing you'll notice is that Clete is damnably diligent in tracking down each and every one of the murderers and is vengeful as hell when he does. In one particular encounter Clete, disguised as a hotel waiter, tracks down one of the killers and once inside the room, turns into a vengeful demon in a bow-tie. The sequence of events goes as such: firstly he holds him at gun point, then punches him to the ground, then for some fireworks, he whips out a can of lighter fluid and empties the entire can onto the killer, then forcibly drags him onto the balcony, whips out his Zippo and sets him on fire, screaming in agony the killer-on-fire jumps from the balcony to his death ten stories down. A pretty "hard-edged" and lurid sequence, but were just getting started, as that's only the first victim. Over the course of the next hour Clete and then later the ever-entertaining Robert Tessier joins in the fun and they go on to assassinate an entire drug cartel and not to forget a certain treacherous ex-girlfriend who has ties to the cartel. Hauser and Tessier make for a ruthlessly efficient duo and the baddies, whether their in the USA or south of the border, do not stand a chance to their brand of vigilante justice. You can definitely file "No Safe Haven" under the sub-category of "scorned-loner-takes-out-the-trash-with-a-vengeance". The kind of movie I can really get into and though Wings Hauser is nowhere near as big a name as Eastwood, Bronson or Stallone, but never the less he certainly takes out the trash in No Safe Haven.
With what's obviously a meager budget, No Safe Haven does quite a bit with it, as the proceedings prove to be colorful and we find ourselves pinballing from one scenario to the next - from explosive speedboat chase's to sleazy backseat tryst's in stripclub parking lots to NFL prime-time game-day flashbacks to infiltrating a drug-lord's compound, which goes up in flames thanks to Clete's handiwork and for good measure they throw in a helicopter shoot em' up sequence to drive home the finale. At the end of it all Clete and Randy kill the bad-guy's, but, in a departure from the movie-formula DON'T get the girl. All in all No Safe Haven is hardly a great movie - but you can certainly do a lot worse. What I really like is how hardcore this movie is in it's most violent moments, watch for the "severed head trick" Clete pulls near the end - now that's using your, er, someones head. Plus I simply seem to like anything that Robert Tessier is in, from "Hard Times" to "The Deep" even terrible bottom-of-the-barrel dreck like David Carridine's "Future Force" has some inspired moments and let's not forget he show's up in one of the all-time best episodes of The A-Team - Robert Tessier (stuntman, actor and former para-trooper) had a colorful career. Lastly, judging by the looks of it, I'd wager that No Safe Haven was a direct-to-video release - but by no means does that mean you can't have fun with it.
No Safe Haven feels like a mash-up of an Andy Sidaris movie and one of your more violent episodes of Miami Vice: drugs, guns and plenty of T & A.
Hauser in another serviceable B-movie
udar5510 March 2010
Warning: Spoilers
After he refuses to throw a game for some drug lords, football star Buddy Harris (Tom Campitelli) is murdered alongside his mother and younger brother. This doesn't sit well with eldest son Clete Harris (Wings Hauser), a loose cannon Government agent cooling his heels in Honduras. When he gets word, he flies back to the US to bury his family and anyone who was involved with it. Unconvinced with the sheriff's suspect, Clete uses his contacts in Government to find out this was the work of Manuel (Branscombe Richmond), who is working for drug kingpin in Bolivia. So Clete teams with weapons expert Randy aka Popeye (Robert Tessier) and heads to South America to get his revenge.
Hauser always has a great screen presence and the film's in which he had a bit more creative control (he co-wrote here with his then wife Nancy Locke) always feature some little eccentric bits. This is full of them from throw away lines by Wings to a drunken parking lot fling with a floozy (Locke) to Tessier being cast as a good guy who is also a doting single father whose military obsessed son leads a squadron of geese. The action is good and appropriately over-the-top (a van explodes after a cement truck hits its open back door). Director Ronnie Rondell has done tons of stunt-work, but this is the only feature he directed. The film isn't going to change anything it the landscape of cinema, but it is an enjoyable 90 minute B-movie. Oh, there is also a scenery chewing performance of epic proportions by Native American actor Richmond, mostly known for his work on TV's RENEGADE. His interpretation of a South American drug dealer is hilarious, sounding like Cheech Marin at times. It is the kind of performance that would have Al Pacino from SCARFACE say, "Chew gotta be fookin kiddin me, mang!"
Hauser always has a great screen presence and the film's in which he had a bit more creative control (he co-wrote here with his then wife Nancy Locke) always feature some little eccentric bits. This is full of them from throw away lines by Wings to a drunken parking lot fling with a floozy (Locke) to Tessier being cast as a good guy who is also a doting single father whose military obsessed son leads a squadron of geese. The action is good and appropriately over-the-top (a van explodes after a cement truck hits its open back door). Director Ronnie Rondell has done tons of stunt-work, but this is the only feature he directed. The film isn't going to change anything it the landscape of cinema, but it is an enjoyable 90 minute B-movie. Oh, there is also a scenery chewing performance of epic proportions by Native American actor Richmond, mostly known for his work on TV's RENEGADE. His interpretation of a South American drug dealer is hilarious, sounding like Cheech Marin at times. It is the kind of performance that would have Al Pacino from SCARFACE say, "Chew gotta be fookin kiddin me, mang!"
A revenge flick with some nastiness and HAUSER
videorama-759-8593914 June 2014
This was a comeback for Hauser. And I must say, it was one I like. He co wrote it too, and it isn't a badly made film. Revenge has always been sweet but it some cases, it can never be so deadly. Hauser's brother, a grid iron player who a drug habit, who got in with some bad people, one such guy, who you don't cross, Manuel (Branscombe Richmond), who asks him to throw the game, but he doesn't, bringing hell down on him. He and his mother and his younger brother are savagely murdered. The other one, Clete Harris, a CIA operative posted thousands of miles away, is too someone you don't want to cross. There's a storm brewing through him, and how he takes out the three, is impressively smart and awesome. He strikes up a friendship with Buddy's girlfriend, who provides a shock of revelation near the end. The opening to this flick, is cheaply and trashily exciting, just the start you need, where some of the chase shot is speeded up. What a trick? These baddie mother fu..ers, find a bus full of children been blown up hysterical, which is why we find their demises hysterical. Robert Tessier is legendary as Randy, who illegally houses all this big ammunition, out in the glades, where by a little shooting display, in the wide open spaces was classic, like the pro himself. He teams with Hauser for the final and most important kill. Honestly this is a bit better action film like many of this type, as too Hauser's background and living arrangements were intriguing as some of his tricks, in his strategy of death and vengeance upon these scum. And as an added plus, we have a Chris Rea hit song. For Hauser fans and other that crave action, and revenge, here's a good actioner while being impressive too in the fact, Hauser's pen was partly responsible for this film.
Flawed, though has some good bits
Wizard-821 April 2011
I always like a good revenge movie, which is why I rented "No Safe Haven", to see some good revenge. Indeed, the parts of the movie where Wings Hauser is executing his revenge are pretty good, but for some strange reason a lot of the running time is devoted to him fooling around with women and other activities that don't portray him as constantly working on his revenge plans. Also, after setting up one of the villains as a *great* bad guy (Branscombe Richmond gives a real memorable performance), the movie then forgets about him, only bringing him back a long time later for just a few minutes before completely disposing of him. Still, the movie does partially make up for that by introducing Robert Tessier's character, who is a charismatic ally of Hauser. Is the movie worth seeing? Yes, but I would recommend you only watch it when you are in an undemanding mood and can't find anything better to watch.
Routine actioner
lor_1 May 2023
My review was written in September 1989 after watching the film on MCEG/Virgin video cassette.
"No Safe Haven" is an okay action pic that curiously has sat on the shelf nearly three years before headin for video stores.
Written by the husband-wife team Wings Hauser and Nancy Locke, pic toplines Hauser as a U. S. spy in Honduras who heads home for revenge when mobsters kill his mom and young brother. Teamed with sidekick Robert Tessier (bald thesp cast as a good guy for a change), he then heads back south of the border to clean up the drug lords.
Under Ronnie Rondell's direction, pic moves at a fast clip and has solid stunt scenes. Subplot involving pro football is not very interesting or germaine to the story.
Hauser is fine as the tough-guy hero, while there is some odd in-joke banter between him and Locke, who plays a Peace Corps worker in Honduras.
"No Safe Haven" is an okay action pic that curiously has sat on the shelf nearly three years before headin for video stores.
Written by the husband-wife team Wings Hauser and Nancy Locke, pic toplines Hauser as a U. S. spy in Honduras who heads home for revenge when mobsters kill his mom and young brother. Teamed with sidekick Robert Tessier (bald thesp cast as a good guy for a change), he then heads back south of the border to clean up the drug lords.
Under Ronnie Rondell's direction, pic moves at a fast clip and has solid stunt scenes. Subplot involving pro football is not very interesting or germaine to the story.
Hauser is fine as the tough-guy hero, while there is some odd in-joke banter between him and Locke, who plays a Peace Corps worker in Honduras.
bad movie
christakis9913987415 September 2010
Warning: Spoilers
i saw this movie two times.cheap movie.b movie star wings Hauser.first i must say that someone has to shoot these movie companies.i don't know if they are now in the market but they are doing shits not movies.they film in Texas?Texas as Bolivia?why they took the screenplay?the actors are bad the action 4 to 10.the scenery too.this is a crap.its the second movie that i have seen with that actor.he plays like van-tam.but van-tam is not American!he is from Belgium.he speaks french better.what a mess!i know that drug dealers have private armies.this guy in Bolivia has the country's army protection.like the fascist American army who kills people around the world.
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