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Sky Riders More at IMDbPro »
| Index | 9 reviews in total |
9 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
classic Coburn at his best, 5 June 2006
Author:
from United States
The movie starts with machinegun-toting terrorists killing the hired help and kidnapping a wife and child. The husband seeks his wife's former husband's help in getting them back. The gang's hideout territory scenery is breathtaking, an abandoned and isolated monastery in mountainous Greece. The inside of the monastery depicts ancient Christian Orthodox iconography. Coburn lines up a travelling troupe of circus-act type hang gliger performers to teach him how to fly. These are the early design of hang gliders, with a rogallo wing design. The rogallo wing consists of fabric stretched out in a triangle over two leading-edge hollow aluminum spars, with another aluminum tube for a spine, and another for a cross bar, and a lower metal loop for the dangling pilot to grip and steer by. Very much like a modern delta-style steerable kite. These were dangerous but beautiful designs, which are capable of going into a stall and nose dive, straight into the ground from a thousand feet up if you are not careful and experienced, but a delight to watch in flight. Before he approaches them, Coburn watches the travelling aerialists' circus-style open-air act, as the heartstoppingly colorful hang gliders perform aerial maneuvers with breathtaking poise and beauty. There's a pretty girl in the troup. One flyer pretends to lose his grip and plummets dozens of feet into a nearby body of water while his pilotless hang glider drifts lazily down without him. So Coburn approaches them and asks to be taught how to pilot one. Somewhere along the line, while learning to fly, Coburn gets casual and cozy, and proposes to the performers that they join him in the rescue. "If we fail," you get your money back," the teacher volunteers. "Right!" Coburn grins skeptically and knowingly, to which the others laugh. Coburn isn't bitter, but he's no fool, and suddenly they have all been won over to his side and looking at the challenge as a team. Like I said, Coburn at his best. From there on, it's a class act as Coburn and the aerialists make a stealth infiltration of the sky-high monastery via hang glider, and seek to get the woman and child out and escape again on their hang gliders before the terrorists can discover and stop them.
4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
I enjoyed the film very much - captivating scenes of hang-glider rescue., 21 March 2003
Author:
judyb6 from Scottsdale, AZ.
I have been trying to find this film on video for many years because I remember it as being so interesting, with the rescue sequences by hang gliders. I disagree with another person who commented that they could not see the hang-gliding sequences, due to darkness in the film. There are not very many films that make a big impression on me but this one did and I still remember it though I only saw it once, when it was first released. I hope it is released on video or DVD some day so that I can see it again.
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
A solid and exciting action thriller, 20 July 2007
Author:
Woodyanders (Woodyanders@aol.com) from The Last New Jersey Drive-In on the Left
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
A group of vicious, nefarious terrorist scum kidnap the stalwart, protective wife (a plucky, spirited Susannah York) and kids of wealthy industrialist Jonas Bracken (finely played by Robert Culp). So Jonas, assisted by York's macho, take-charge mercenary ex-husband Jim McCabe (an excellently wry and laconic performance by the always cool and unflappable James Coburn), diligent police chief Charles Aznavour, and a bunch of hang-gliding enthusiasts led by the handsome, dashing John Beck, decide to raid the terrorist's remote mountainside fortress in Greece in order to get 'em back. Directed with tight, brisk, straight-down-the-line concise and unpretentious razor efficiency by Douglas Hickox, from a similarly taut, smart and sharply honed script by Jack DeWitt, Stanley Mann and Garry Michael White, further enhanced by one of Lalo Schifrin's customary lush, stirring and majestic full orchestra scores, a pleasingly prompt, unflagging pace, top-rate aerial photography, frequent outbursts of excitingly fast'n'furious violence, solid acting, glossy production values, a properly no-nonsense let's get down to brass tacks attitude, and a wild bullets and bodies a flyin' everywhere mondo destructo shoot 'em up finale, this nifty little number overall sizes up as a satisfyingly terse and to the point action/suspense thriller.
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Plot minimal; characterisation non-existent…. partially redeemed by its half-decent action sequences., 12 April 2012
Author:
Jonathon Dabell (barnaby.rudge@hotmail.co.uk) from Wakefield, England
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Whenever actors are interviewed, they always seem to want to talk about
the characters they have played in whatever movie they happen to be
promoting at the time. It would have been very interesting indeed to
see what the actors would have said about their roles in Sky Riders,
for here we have some of the most shallow characterisation ever seen in
a mainstream film. Quite why talented stars like James Coburn, Susannah
York, Robert Culp, Charles Aznavour and Kenneth Griffith were needed
for these roles is beyond explanation. It is a movie built solely
around a novel action gimmick (hang-gliding rescue mission) – in terms
of plot and characterisation, it doesn't even make it to first base.
American industrialist Jonas Bracken (Robert Culp) lives with his wife
and kids in a Greek villa. While he's out on business, a group of
masked terrorists raid the villa, ruthlessly executing the staff and
abducting Bracken's nearest and dearest. Later, the terrorists
establish contact and demand a huge sum of money and various arms for
their vague militant cause in return for the safe return of their
prisoners. Bracken's wife, Ellen (Susannah York), used to be married to
adventure-loving mercenary Jim McCabe (James Coburn). When he learns
that she has been taken hostage by the terrorists, he quickly steps in
to offer his services. When it becomes apparent that Ellen and her two
kids are imprisoned in a mountain-top monastery which cannot be
approached unseen from below, McCabe comes up with the audacious idea
of flying in by hang-glider and attempting a near-impossible rescue
against formidable odds.
Sky Riders is the penultimate film of director Douglas Hickox (Zulu
Dawn would be his last). He handles the dizzying aerial action quite
well, especially in the film's final quarter. However, the film overall
is a dispirited and utterly routine non-event… it's brief running time
is either the result of a heck of a lot of post-production cutting, or
else the script (which, unbelievably, is the product of four brains)
simply misses out on a whole host of potentially interesting
developments. The performers really don't stand much of a chance when
they're asked to work with such threadbare material - Coburn smiles a
lot and gets to perfect his cool macho posturing; York is totally
wasted as the woman with two men in her life that genuinely love her;
Culp spends almost the entire film wearing an anxious grimace. Harry
Andrews and Kenneth Griffith turn up in a couple of one-scene cameos
that could've easily been played by any half-competent bit player. Lalo
Schifrin's score is at least suitably flavoursome and the Greek
locations look gorgeous, but you'd be right to expect a lot more from
Sky Riders. Sadly, all it leaves you with are a few morsels of decent
action; besides that there's virtually nothing else.
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Excellent escapism., 18 March 2012
Author:
Scott LeBrun from Canada
"Sky Riders" is good fun, with a fairly unique premise. Robert Culp plays Jonas Bracken, an industrialist whose family are kidnapped by terrorists who demand a ransom. Also swept into the drama is Jim McCabe (James Coburn), the ex-husband of Jonas's wife Ellen (Susannah York) and biological father to Jonas's stepson. The trouble is, our good guys realize that the bad guys have holed up in a mountaintop lair, and will be able to see most anybody that's coming. Then Jim hits upon inspiration: hire a hang gliding team to perform as an impromptu rescue unit, taking lessons from them himself. The hang gliding sequences give this action-thriller something extra. Directed extremely well by Douglas Hickox ("Theatre of Blood", "Zulu Dawn"), this is a genuinely exciting movie that can actually keep a viewer watching. It's breathtaking, with the expected impressive aerial stunts and lots of amazing Greek scenery. The music by Lalo Schifrin is just perfect as it's quite rousing and the movie just steadily builds the whole time towards a fantastic action climax. The acting is fine from most everybody involved, with Coburn making for a rugged and engaging hero, Culp the picture of grim determination, York a feisty victim, and Charles Aznavour solid as the intrepid Inspector Nikolidis. The people playing the hang gliders include John Beck, Barbara Trentham, Henry Brown, and Steven Keats, and they're a very likable bunch. Werner Pochath and Zouzou are appropriately odious as two of the terrorists. This is clearly not a movie that's too well known, which is too bad as it deserves better. One could certainly do a LOT worse. Eight out of 10.
4 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Manages to be unusual and pedestrian at the same time!, 3 January 2006
Author:
Poseidon-3 from Cincinnati, OH
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
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.
routine, 8 September 2009
Author:
blanche-2 from United States
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.
7 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
Typical 70's B Movie, 4 April 2005
Author:
jrs-8 from Chicago
"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.
4 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
Utterly ordinary time-waster., 31 October 1999
Author:
gridoon
Utterly ordinary, thoroughly routine and totally forgettable adventure tale that's good only if you want to waste some time -although there are many better time-wasters around. There are no surprises and no attempts at distinguishing this film from dozens of similar films. As for the hand-gliding sequences, many of them are filmed at night and we can barely see what's happening onscreen!
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