Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Pros: Music 9/10 (Lalo Schifrin's music gives more tense especially at the action scenes) Scenery 10/10 (Meteora are really breathtaking... we should see more often this place in movies) James Coburn 8/10 (Cool as always... Classic Coburn) Cons: Scenario: 4/10 (Plain scenario, no surprises... ok it's a 70's scenario but still they could have work it more... I mean James Coburn fighting Leftist terrorists on Meteora?..) Direction 5/10 (Hickox isn't Hitchcock, that's for sure... aerial shootings though where actually good) Conclusion: It's a classic 70's action movie. If you decide to spend your time to watch it you won't regret it. But the next morning you'll not remember a lot. Maybe only the stunning scenery of Meteora. It's 7/10 by me.

"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.

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.

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!