Quicksilver (1986)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Blistering performances.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

What a bad film boring and really full of cliches worst of the bad 80s movies . It skips around all over the place and doesn't really make you care about the characters in any way shape or form !

Quicksilver has Jack Casey (Kevin Bacon) playing a hotshot mid 1980s stockbroker in New York. We see Jack getting a cab driver to race with a bike courier at the start of the film.However Casey bets wrong in the stock exchange and loses a lot of money and is all washed up. He has lost his parents money but instead of getting off the floor and fight back which was his father's advice he emerges as a bicycle messenger in San Francisco. Well those hills looked like the streets of San Francisco.However this bicycle courier firms seems to be made up of a bunch of losers and assorted waifs and strays such as new girl Terri (Jami Gertz) who incidentally all seem to have come from New York.One of them Voodoo (Larry Fishburne) is mixed up with a sleazy drug dealer for easy money but ends up getting killed by him which Jack has witnessed. Jack becomes fond of Terri but she is also now doing errands for the same drug dealer. Jack also wants to help out another courier to open his own hot dog stand and in order for him to do this he returns to investing in the stock exchange but the stock exchange he worked at seems to have been in San Francisco all along as were his parents.That is about it plot-wise. Jack trying to find redemption while also taking out with the drug dealer who has been stalking him. Going to the police never entered his mind. Then again in all the pursuits on the streets we never see the police in this movie. To keep the film moving along we have various bicycle stunt scenes and chase scenes set to 1980s rock music so the film looks like a part rock video.The more recent movie Premium Rush made a better fist of this kind of film. Quicksilver went into obscurity because it was badly written. Kevin Bacon was reportedly unhappy with the finished film. Its geographical setting is awkward. Is it set in New York, LA or San Francisco?The story is choppy. Characters such as Jack's parents flit in and out after long gaps. We get to know very little of the other characters in the courier firm, even Fishburne is wasted. The drug dealer subplot comes across as terrible and the romance subplot looks awkward.Still the 1980s 'greed is good' setting and Giorgio Moroder tinny electro-pop gives it some nostalgia.

Even though Kevin Bacon has turned in some wonderful performances in the 35 years as a performer I for many years have dodged the 1986 low-budgeted thriller "Quicksilver". I just felt that Bacon has made far better movies than this. But once I purchased it on Blu-ray, I was pleased by the movie. For a meagre budget, this movie was very heart pumping, entertaining and once again, Bacon excels in another vibrant performance.Granted it has its bizarre scenes. But what do you expect? This movie was released in the 1980's. But to delve deeper into the layers of the movie, I think it will satisfy an audience who like a vast variety of genres because there's some thing there for everyone to enjoy. Kevin Bacon plays the part of Jack Casey, who at one time was a top notch stockbroker who made a living trading stocks. One day, a bad tip has come his way and suddenly he gets knocked down from Cloud 9 to rock bottom, even his parents are left in the drenches of his financial downfall. Down on his luck, he ends up getting a job as a messenger cyclist and becomes an unwritten adviser to other messenger cyclists in San Francisco who take their low-payed jobs very seriously. With a talent pool of outstanding supporting players like Jami Gertz, Paul Rodriguez and Laurence Fishburne these performers utilize their abilities to provide, thrills, drama and action.With the concentration of Mr. Casey returning back to his old job, he must resolve his past failures while trying to win back his dignity once again. Losing everything he's got has made Jack downtrodden and just fixated with hanging on to everything he still has. When his fellow messenger Hector (Paul Rodriguez) has ambitions to open up a hot-dog stand, Jack pulls all his resources to help Hector fulfill his dream. Jack stands up to his fellow messengers once drug-dealers begin to take over to deliver their goods. After being a witness to a murder, Jack learns first hand that these druggies are hiring messengers to do their dirty work, this leads to Jack coming to the aid of Terri (Jami Gertz) so that she does not bite in with their manipulative schemes.Terri is quite vulnerable to give into their schemes, while Hector in an reluctant act of desperation joins in to make quick money to gather his funds. And while Jack's quest to go back to being a broker, takes a negative impact on the bikers as they're now part of this illegal operation. They're fates all depend on Jack for getting back to his old ways again as Jack has now become a hero to all of them.The editing was tightly knitted and the action pieces were purely sublime as it compliments the rather dark sub-plot that this movie has to offer. This movie stands the test of time as a definitive Kevin Bacon 80's film that's worth to take a gander at. Though it was made 27 years ago, it has aged quite gracefully. Even though the Blu-ray offers no special features, the picture restoration is quite an improvement.

In 'Quicksilver,' Kevin Bacon is a stock market big shot who loses everything and ends up a bicycle messenger. From there, the film can't make up it's mind what on earth it's about. Drug dealers, rival bike riders...they're all here. This film just coasts around for awhile, but there's nothing interesting along the way. About the only thing this film has going for it is it's synthesizer score by Genesis keyboardist Tony Banks.