Sky Riders (1976)

Some fine performances from James Coburn and some of the rest of the cast, plus picturesque Greek locations, can't provide the thermal that would lift this out of the abyss of the gimmick movie.At heart, it's a routine film of a millionaire's family being kidnapped and then rescued by Coburn and half a dozen hang glider pilots from a circus troupe. We get to know the millionaire, Robert Culp, and the kidnapped wife, Susannah York, because they are familiar figures. We also get to know the local chief of police, Charles Aznevour, a Greek with a French accent. Except for John Beck, who heads the circus troupe and teaches Coburn how to fly and whose chin seems to be a granite massif, the other flyers are faceless and nameless, although they too are risking their lives in a daring assault on the ex monastery where York and her two kids are being held.The opening scene has the villains bursting into Culp's Greek mansion and shooting down all the servants before making off with York and the kids. The ransom is five million dollars. Culp, a nice cooperative guy, is willing to pay but hasn't got five million bucks. No matter because the whole ransom business is dropped from the plot anyway, eclipsed by a long and chaotic shoot out at the monastery.The editing really is execrable. So is the screenplay. Coburn seems to learn how to fly a hang glider in five minutes under Beck's tutelage. York doesn't get any lessons at all but can still take the controls during the escape when her companion is wounded. Oddly enough, the movie is built around the use of the hang gliders, which were a novelty at the time. (Earlier novelties included wet suits and Scuba diving; viz., "The Wreck of the Mary Deare," "Thunderball." Later, there were sky divers.) Yet the shots of the hang gliders aren't thrilling, as they should be. Much of it is at night. And the images of mountainous landscapes are jumbled and rolled about carelessly.After the escape is effected and the monastery is under assault from a horde of Greek astynomia, led by Aznavour, who has even given Robert Culp a rifle and dragged him along, some of the hang gliders circle back to the monastery, when they could easily head straight away from the area of danger. The gliders are unarmed but they keep flying around and providing convenient targets for the villains' machine guns.However, for all its flaws, it's a thought-provoking film. The thought it provokes is that no power on earth could ever get me to leave the ground in one of those flimsy contraptions.

"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

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.

"Skyriders" is a typical action film from the 70's that opened and closed within two weeks and your local theater and drive-in. It contains a few name stars (James Colburn, Robert Culp) but let's face it the action is supposed to be the star. On that score the film is not bad. The problem is it takes much too long to get to the action.Colburn stars as a pilot whose ex-wife and child (along with another child fathered by Culp) are kidnapped by mercenaries for ransom. While Culp works on raising the money and cooperating with authorities, Coburn hires a band of expert gliders to aid in a rescue. All of this could have been told in a clean quick manner but it takes forever to get to the rescue. We even have a silly montage of the skydivers training Colburn. Not necessary. We want the action! Contrary to the first comment the skyrider scenes are not too dark even though the desired effect is for it to night time. Actually I think it was shot during the day and a dark filter superimposed on the film to make it look like night. If you look closely at the rocks you can see the shadows of the gliders. I never saw such pronounced shadows at night.The gliding scenes are well done and thrilling up to a point. My biggest problem is that the escape plan seems all too easy seeing where the kidnappers are located. Of course it's not all done without a hitch but there are no real twists to keep things exciting. The last part of the film becomes a standard shoot em up film that you have scene hundreds of times before.The film is mediocre at best. The good talent is pretty much wasted in an action film with not enough action or a smart script.