Robert Culp plays Bracken, whose life seems perfect until his wife Ellen and their children are kidnapped by terrorists one day. After failed attempts to capture them back by the police, ... See full summary »
Imprisoned Harry Lomart is a vicious, brute of a man and yet he is prepared to do his long jail term as he is confident that on his release his beautiful wife Pat will be waiting for him, but a visit from Pat brings him his worst nightmare.
Former secret agent Robert Elliot (Coburn) will be promoted to government advisor. In order to make sure no-one will ever know about his dirty past, he has invented a very ingenious plan to... See full summary »
In the early 20th century, some convicts while on a road gang escape and one of the convicts is Zach Provo, a half Indian, who was sent to prison during the latter part of the 19th century.... See full summary »
Director:
Andrew V. McLaglen
Stars:
Charlton Heston,
James Coburn,
Barbara Hershey
A cold hearted American hit man goes to Europe for 'one last score'. His encounter with a beautiful young woman casts self doubt on his lifeblood, and influences him to resist carrying out the contract
Threatened with recapture after a prison escape, Martin Stechert grabs a 12-year-old as hostage. He proves to be named Martin, too - a quiet "good little boy" always obeying the rules, whom... See full summary »
Director:
Alan Gibson
Stars:
Richard Harris,
Lindsay Wagner,
James Coburn
Chris Lloyd does NOT get along with his father Walter. Walter is too careful, cautious, and boring to Chris, and never tries anything new, and Chris had to live by the same standards when ... See full summary »
A masked killer, wearing World War II U.S. Army fatigues, stalks a small New Jersey town bent on reliving a 35-year-old double murder by focusing on a group of college kids holding an annual Spring Dance.
Director:
Joseph Zito
Stars:
Vicky Dawson,
Christopher Goutman,
Lawrence Tierney
Four American friends, badly needing money, decide to make a commando-like raid into a South American country and steal $5 million from the hacienda of an American-born drug dealer who ... See full summary »
Director:
Stewart Raffill
Stars:
James Brolin,
Anthony Quinn,
Lindsay Wagner
Robert Culp plays Bracken, whose life seems perfect until his wife Ellen and their children are kidnapped by terrorists one day. After failed attempts to capture them back by the police, Ellen's ex husband enters the fray and plans his own rescue attempt. James Coburn plays McCabe, Ellen's ex-husband who hires a crew of professional hang gliders to help him rescue her and the kids from the terrorist's mountain top lair. Written by
Patrick Knightly <pjknight@polsci.umass.edu>
This movie's Hungarian 'Égi lovasok' title translates literally into English as 'Heavenly Riders'. See more »
Goofs
During the supposed night-time rescue operation when the rescuers hang-glided in for the rescue, you can clearly see the shadows of the hang gliders on the rocks below them. So, clearly these scenes were shot in the daytime with a dark filter used to make it look like nighttime. See more »
"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.
8 of 16 people found this review helpful.
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"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.