Quicksilver (1986)

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.

Jack Casey (Kevin Bacon) is a big shot stock broker. He makes a big move that doesn't work out and loses all his parents' savings. He gets gun shy and ends up as a bicycle messenger. Terri (Jami Gertz) is the new rider. Hector Rodriguez (Paul Rodriguez) is the entrepreneur who wants to buy a hot dog cart. Voodoo (Laurence Fishburne) is the big rider who is not particular about what he carries. Gypsy is a local drug dealer who uses messengers to deliver his product.I have to admit that I don't remember how cheesy 80s this movie actually is and that Louie Anderson is in this as a bike messenger. The music is so 80s and the bike acrobatics is fun. The story is nothing special. It's got Kevin Bacon and a few really good actors. The bike riding is fun. It's not more than that.

1st watched 8/27/2005 - 3 out of 10(Dir-Tom Donnelly): Boring movie about a group of bicycle messengers who get hooked up with a drug dealer leading to bad times for all. Kevin Bacon plays a stockbroker who loses all his and his family's money and decides to back away from the business and become a bicycle messenger for a company called "Quicksilver." Now, does this make any sense? Well, that's pretty much the problem with the whole movie. One senseless scene after another(including a "goofy" dance scene with Bacon on a bicycle and his girlfriend toe-tapping) is pieced together for some reason that the viewer is not quite clear about, even by the end. The acting is OK, but the story goes nowhere very slowly. Probably the best scene is thrown-in shots of some of the messengers doing bike tricks but again, why is this even put in the movie? It seems like more time and effort was put into the soundtrack instead of the movie, so if you like movie music this might be one to purchase but don't even offer at the movie itself. There are a few subplots but the characters are never given enough detail behind them for anyone to care. So when it's all over were excited about 1 thing, that it's over!! This at least allows us the opportunity to do something much more worthwhile for 1 hour and a half, hopefully.

Surely Kevin Bacon cannot take full responsibility for this endless confusion in the streets, but he sure contributed to it. I watched this movie while at home recuperating from surgery- I was afraid of a setback during the final bicycle/car chase scenes. Maybe it's an '80's kind of thing that I just couldn't remember how to grasp.Points for the music though. It would be less painful to just buy the CD.