554:: "If you like McCall's work, you may like certain scenes in 'Sky Bandits.' If not, you won't. The design of the airplanes in this movie is its single, lonely, redeeming facet. Everything else is surprisingly boring, given the fact that the movie cost a reported $ 17 million to make. The plot involves aerial battles in World War I, but the dialogue rolls along at about the level and intensity of a couple of fraternity kids making plans for the weekend."
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squadron's base has been destroyed by the airship, along with all of the squadron's planes. Defying orders once again he recovers the Gunbus and flies off, secretly landing near the hangar. Finding Luke is being held captive inside a bank, he uses his previous familiarity with blowing open bank vaults to break Luke free, before the two of them attempt to destroy the airship.
331:(known as a "Gunbus"). They succeed in flying the plane, getting lost and briefly glimpsing a huge experimental German airship hidden in the clouds. Landing by coincidence at an RFC squadron base, their sighting of the airship proves enough to persuade the squadron's commander to offer them a place in his unit.
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Back in the Old West, Barney and Luke blow another bank up before racing off on horseback as they had before the war. As a posse hunt them down they are surprised however to see the pair disappear only to reappear flying over their heads in a Gunbus. As the credits roll, Barney and Luke continue to
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What gives the film its isolated moments of distinction are the fanciful flying machines conceived by Tony
Woollard, the movie's production designer. They include what appear to be a Model-T Ford with wings, a six-engine bomber and a fearsome dirigible a half-mile long with the armament of a World
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was meant to direct. However a few weeks before filming was to start Hutton pulled out. Herland said, "He wasn't prepared to bet with us unless the money was on the table. And since we didn't have the money from the City
Institutions to make the movie until a week before filming you can see there
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Still seeking a way out of the conflict, Barney and Luke use their newfound position to steal two planes at gunpoint, intending to fly to
Switzerland. On their route they accidentally find themselves at the airship's hangar, where Luke is shot down and captured. Barney turns back to find his
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with a $ 3.5 million ad campaign but the film was a financial failure. It opened on Friday, October 31, 1986, in 1,335 theatres in the United States, the only wide release that weekend, and grossed $ 1,468,500 for the weekend, finishing in eighth place. Its total gross was $ 2,295,500.
525:) and loaded with lush period production values. But this is probably what you get when you hire a special effects technician to direct your film, even if the special effects technician is as talented as Zoran Perisic, the man who devised the flying sequences for the
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The film claimed to be the biggest wholly independent movie made in
Britain in 1985, with a reported budget of £13 million. The film took eight years and three million dollars to get into production. It was produced by American
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The airship takes off, and Barney and Luke pursue in the Gunbus. In the air they are joined by the rest of the squadron, who are flying an array of improvised novelty planes designed by the squadron's crazy engineer Fritz
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described the film as "a charmless comedy", stated that "the screenplay, the direction and the performances are terrible", and observed that McGinnis' and
Osterhage's characters "are intended to recall (but don't)
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In the maelstrom of the frontlines, Barney and Luke use their gunslinging skills to shoot the pilot of a low-flying German bomber. Using the chaos to abscond from their unit, they impersonate two
British
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said the film "has a few inspired comic touches which might work well with younger audiences, but its heroes are so hokey and its plot so pokey that it never zooms into high gear."
343:). The squadron engages in an aerial battle with the airship as Barney and Luke land on top and use their six-shooters and dynamite to force the airship's captain to surrender.
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is tritely conceived and flatly filmed. That is a shame, because it's otherwise a very handsome movie, photographed in dark, contrasty color by the great David Watkin (
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was a problem. Zoran had been on the film for so long and always wanted to direct, it just seemed perfectly logical then to let him do so."
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officers to sneak into an officer's mess, whereupon after a night of drinking they are challenged to prove themselves by piloting a
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The 12th Annual
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argue with each other over whether to fly to Mexico – itself deep in the midst of
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Caught after a series of dynamite-fuelled bank robberies in the dying days of the
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724:"Sky Bandits movie review & film summary (1986) | Roger Ebert"
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572:." He did, however, have a positive opinion on its production design:
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Perisic learned how to speak
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Perisic came on board the project in 1982 to work on its effects.
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and later said "I suppose you could say the
Western scene in
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negatively compared the film to the drawings of airplanes
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observed: "Everything that touches the human element in
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technique he had developed for the flying sequences on
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Goldstein, Patrick. Los
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War II battleship. Mr. Woollard's designs look like
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162:Entertainment Film Distributors (United Kingdom)
455:is kind of a Western hommage to Huddersfield".
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696:Late lift-off The Guardian 29 Aug 1985: 11.
624:Kehr, Dave. Chicago Tribune 31 Oct 1986: J.
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622:BRITISH 'SKY BANDITS' HANDSOME BUT UNEVEN
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712:. 5 November 1986. p. 4.
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419:Bill Reimbold as Bank Manager
858:1980s English-language films
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838:British war adventure films
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402:as Commander Von Schlussel
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853:Films shot in Almería
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151:J&M Entertainment
185: (United States)
863:1980s British films
743:The New York Times
560:The New York Times
382:Nicholas Lyndhurst
268:Royal Flying Corps
104:Nicholas Lyndhurst
595:Los Angeles Times
590:Patrick Goldstein
537:Chicago Sun-Times
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233:$ 18 million
205:Running time
153:London Front
137:Alfi Kabiljo
127:Peter Tanner
117:David Watkin
94:Ronald Lacey
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808:Sky Bandits
791:Sky Bandits
783:Sky Bandits
772:Sky Bandits
761:Sky Bandits
673:15 December
579:Jules Verne
542:Roger Ebert
511:Sky Bandits
494:Sky Pirates
466:Steppenwolf
425:as Waitress
388:Ingrid Held
349:its own war
249:Sky Bandits
241:$ 2,295,500
209:105 minutes
69:Produced by
49:Directed by
35:Sky Bandits
828:1986 films
822:Categories
602:References
430:Production
378:as Bannock
303:, Barney (
238:Box office
192:1987-07-10
181:1986-10-31
144:Production
63:Thom Keyes
59:Written by
531:movies."
501:Dave Kehr
488:Reception
396:as Yvette
390:as Mitsou
384:as Chalky
260:Wild West
146:companies
123:Edited by
528:Superman
441:Superman
372:as Fritz
301:Old West
288:Superman
272:gunbuses
222:Language
133:Music by
79:Starring
709:Variety
592:of the
534:In the
503:of the
366:as Luke
225:English
214:Country
190: (
179: (
801:Review
786:at BFI
453:Gunbus
313:France
283:Zoptic
255:Gunbus
230:Budget
813:TCMDB
766:IMDb
675:2019
516:Help
355:Cast
295:Plot
811:at
794:at
775:at
764:at
557:In
325:RFC
264:WWI
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