"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
Review of Sky Riders
