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Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

American industrialist in Greece has to raise $5,000,000 in 48 hours to save his wife and children from the hands of a merciless anti-imperialist terrorist organization known as the World Activist's Revolutionary Army; when the police prove to be inept, the kidnapped woman's ex-husband organizes a hang-gliding team to infiltrate the terrorists' mountaintop lair. Old-fashioned adventure saga of the kind that hadn't been in vogue for several years (outside of the Bond films). Certainly not a bad movie, just a little late in arriving. Teaming of Robert Culp and James Coburn certainly pays off, and the aerial photography is very good. ** from ****

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.

"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.

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!