'Safe House' (1997) – Rick King.

It is not often that an insalubrious-looking, budget priced DVD belies such a surprisingly exciting, engagingly plotted, and solidly acted 90s action thriller! Capable director, Rick King's lean cuisine 'Safe House' finds dangerously exposed, conspicuously armed FBI informant Esteban Maceda (Chris Sarandon) on the lam, and fatefully hiding out in equally neglected dust bowl ghost own, Dieserei, therein tersely awaiting the ominous arrival of mafia killers sent by vengeful Hispanic Druglord Orosco (Miguel Nájera) to kill the disloyal informant Esteban before he can testify against him, but amiable local sheriff Ben Gilchrist (Dennis Hopper), and attractive, kind hearted guest house owner Kat (Mariel Hemingway) become inexorably drawn into Esteban's increasingly desperate situation, forming an uneasy union, they soon have other plans for the murderous Orosco, and his murderous minions! Far from being a mob handed misfire, Rick King's inviting 'Safe House' provides Grade-A B-Movie thrills, and the thunderously trigger-happy climax exhilaratingly plays out like a suburban John Woo-styled western showdown!!!! The bizarrely unheralded actioner 'Safe House' is arguably one of PM Entertainment Group's more refined examples of budgetarily impaired B-Movie Bad-assery, while Sheriff Hopper is uncharacteristically subdued, it's an amenable performance, but the mongoose mean, eagle-eyed Chris Sarandon strikingly makes for a gloriously grizzled, shoot first, quip later desperado! (Horror fans might care to note that there's a playful reference to 'Fright Night' made herein!)