vostf I am struggling to pinpoint some clever stuff in Sky Riders. The plot, as the whole movie is mediocre at best. The story itself and story editing are really awful: boring stuff happens for most of the movie before we get to real action.Coburn is good in a pretty lame role, but no actor really shines anyway since they've all been given stock characters to play without a personal touch. The gliding scenes are OK but it is really nothing close to tense action getting you to the edge of your seat. The Greek Monastery was a fine location/plot idea but it is totally wasted by the dumb script: assault is piece of cake, freeing the hostages is so easy that we have the annoying scene were the hero even has a little chat with the girl. And Day-for-Night may have been very fashionable around 1970, but the result is simply awful when supposedly tense action is shot that way for dozens of minutes.I simply stopped to hope for something interesting by that point and even stopped watching the movie ten minutes before its ending. The escape and final shootout were simply the worst action finale I can remember.

zardoz-13 "Brannigan" director Douglas Hickox's above-average adventure epic "Sky Riders" qualifies as an entertaining but improbable abduction opus. James Coburn of "Our Man Flint" fame stars as a smuggler who struggles to rescue his ex-wife and two children from the clutches of a treacherous group of trigger-happy kidnappers that call themselves World's Activist Revolutionary Army. This swiftly-paced, PG-rated, 91-minute suspense thriller draws its title from the hang gliders that Coburn employs to snatch Susannah York and two children from a mountain-top monastery. Robert Culp co-stars as wealthy industrialist Jonas Bracken who married Susannah York's character after she divorced the Coburn hero. "Sky Riders" was the first time that the picturesque monastery was used in a Hollywood actioneer. Several years later, producer Albert R. Broccoli used the location in the Roger Moore James Bond thriller "For Your Eyes Only." The aerial assault on the monastery is spectacular stuff, and Coburn appears to be performing his own stunt when he clings to the skid of a helicopter in flight. Unfortunately, despite its scenic settings, dazzling cinematography, and big-name cast, "Sky Riders" suffers from the absence of a strong villain. Scenarists Jack DeWitt, Greg MacGillivray, and Stanley Mann penned the screenplay from a story by Bill McGaw, Hall T. Sprague, and Garry Michael White. Two problems plague this aerial actioneer. They don't have an intimidating villain, and the dialogue remains pretty bland. French singer Charles Aznavour plays a Greek police man who wants to arrest the bad guys. Lalo Schifrin's music enhances the bloody violence

blanche-2 James Coburn, Susannah York and Robert Culp star in "Sky Riders," an action film from 1976. Culp's family is kidnapped by terrorists, and Coburn, who is the ex-husband of York and the father of her son, steps in to help. With the help of a photograph of the family sent by the terrorists, he manages to trace their location to an abandoned monastery. The only way to get there unseen is overhead, as it lays on the top of a huge rock formation. Coburn brings in experienced hang-gliders to help him.Some really nice scenery and hang-gliding sequences are the highlight of this film, along with a good performance by Coburn. The characters aren't really fleshed out, nor are the circumstances of York leaving Coburn for Culp. It's hinted at through the dialogue that Culp wanted to marry York, and in exchange for not fighting the divorce, Culp used his influence to get Coburn less prison time. The boy in the family doesn't know who Coburn is, so the marriage happened when he was very young. There was some rich character material there, but it's not played out in the script.Ordinary.

Poseidon-3 As the old stripper in "Gypsy" says, "Ya gotta have a gimmick!" This action film's gimmick is that the only way to stage an imperative rescue is via hang glider! Culp plays an official living in Greece whose wife York and their two children are taken hostage by a sketchy band of terrorists and held for ransom atop an abandoned monastery. The remote building sits high on a pillar with only similar pillars around it and deep valleys and cliffs as the surrounding terrain. Culp works with the police (led by an almost Clousseu-like Aznavour) while York's first husband (and the natural father of one of the children) Coburn takes a different tack. He pairs up with hang glider expert Beck and his team of specialists to stage a rescue. Coburn isn't bad in his role, though he's hardly challenged by the lame script. York, whose low voice is down there with Vanessa Redgrave's at this point, hasn't got much to do but act worried and ludicrously stand up to her captors. One scene has her sliding to the floor in fear while her terrified preschool daughter lies alone on a cot! Culp tries to convey concern, but his transformation from diplomat into gun-toting savior is rather unrealistic. At least Coburn was already portrayed as a man of action from the start of the film. Even more preposterous is the presentation of the circus performers in Beck's troupe suddenly becoming firearm-trained mercenaries and SWAT-level hostage rescuers in a matter of hours! Always likable Beck has the misfortune of being shown in a silly, grey, sideshow leotard in his first appearance. (One of his gaggle includes Orsatti, best known for plummeting from a table to the lighted ceiling/floor in "The Poseidon Adventure" and appearing in numerous Irwin Allen-produced films before gaining stature as a noted stunt coordinator.) Aznavour is sometimes unintentionally funny in his role as the diminutive, but exacting police chief. Andrews, despite his billing, barley appears at all as a grizzled seafarer. Folks expecting him to figure into the story mustn't hold their breath. Notable 60's personality Zou Zou also barely appears. The chief asset of the film is the spectacular Grecian scenery and the proliferation of location shooting. Also, the shots of the hang gliders in action do provide a modicum of excitement. Unfortunately, a pervading sense of inanity hangs over the film. The opening capture sequence is ridiculously shot. The boy hilariously mouths (while the terrorists are killing virtually everyone on the estate), "They're wearing hockey masks." Since the terrorists kill everyone but the captives, why bother wearing them? They take them off anyway once they reach the monastery!! Then when the big rescue comes, wouldn't someone in charge have noticed that the escape route takes the participants DIRECTLY OVER the place they've just escaped from, thus exposing them to just as much danger as before?? This sort of stupidity goes a long way in decreasing any points the film has scored in the way of star power, interest level or excitement. Still, if one checks his brain before viewing, the film can provide a modestly entertaining diversion.