Quicksilver

Let me start by saying that this is a must-watch for fans of 80's movies. A good soundtrack, Interesting costuming and vibe...but if you are looking for a solid plot, there really isn't one. Is it a movie about a messenger being under the thumb of a drug dealer? About a couple that is going different directions? About a girl looking for her way in a male dominated profession? About a family coming to terms with each other? Or about any of the other dozen or so themes? Is it a movie about trick riding and speed? A comedy? A drama. There are so many of these threads that it makes the movie drag. Focus might have saved the plot...but the acting...hoo boy. Jami Gertz swings back and forth with what might be a Jersey accent or a New England...then a midWestern. Bacon can't decide if his approach is confidence in vulnerability or street cool with book smarts. His relationship with his girlfriend lacks any level of chemistry. The only thing that was interesting about the two was an out of left field, dance/bicycle duet, probably thrown in to capture some fan-service after Bacon's Footloose success.

Overall, it is watchable but also mostly forgettable, with a side of ridiculous dialogue.

I enjoyed Quicksilver. Most movies with the theme of renegades I will like. I'm glad Jack turned his back on the stock exchange and found something that made him feel alive. The worlds of messenger and stock broker were vastly different, but ironically similar in some aspects. The reality of the seedy, urban element that abuses parcel deliverers gave Quicksilver a gutty feel. In other words, the movie was not just doing stunts on a fixed-gear bike or barreling down one way streets the wrong way. The character of Hector gave some good context to the movie, and Jack showed his good side by helping him in whatever way he could. What I don't understand about Quicksilver are a couple of scenes where Jack seemed downright mean. One was when the female messenger Terri, played by Jami Gertz, showed up at his door, asking to stay the night because of necessity. Why did Jack have to act like such a @#$%? What was his point? The other scene was when Jack was eating dinner with his mother and father and he brought up the subject of seeing his father cry. He didn't have to say that. He was the one who lost all his father's money, and then insults him for crying about it? The messenger's hat that Jack picked up off the street at the beginning of the movie I expected him to return to its owner. Isn't that just poetic justice? Nothing ever comes of it. While Quicksilver is a little uneven at times and I was a little annoyed by the raucus and dangerous style of cycle riding displayed, this movie gives us a rare glimpse into the individualistic, rebellious, fleeting, demanding and carnival nature of urban bicycle messengers (and their dispatchers). I was convinced that a vital change had taken place in Jack's world view.., a change that would assist him no matter what he did for work in the future.

To be honest, it's some years since I saw this movie, so have forgotten most of the story details. However, the film now seems rather obscure and apparently not very well regarded, so I wanted to put in my two cents worth of praise for a movie that, while it may not have been memorable, was certainly entertaining at the time.

The story revolves around a hot shot stock market whiz kid named Jack Casey, who loses not only his own money, but also all his parents' life savings in a failed market deal / stock crash. Devastated by his failure, especially the effect it has on his father, he withdraws completely from the financial world, embarking upon a new career as a bicycle messenger. I enjoyed the unusual theme here, the disillusioned stock broker reverting to a simpler and (supposedly) more carefree lifestyle. Jack befriends his fellow messengers, including a guy, Voodoo, who's involved with delivering the goods for a sleazy drug dealer, and also a girl named Terri, who of course becomes the love interest. Jack and Voodoo plan a bike race, but there's trouble brewing from the drug dealer...

Other plot details? I don't recall them, but Kevin Bacon is adept in the role of Jack, the story catchy enough, and the theme regarding the fleeting nature of wealth always relevant, particularly as related to the stock market. Also, although I'm not personally a cyclist, I quite enjoyed the dashing bicycle sequences, up and down and across the sometimes hilly streets, of (I believe) San Francisco. Don't listen to the naysayers, it's a perfectly entertaining way to spend a couple of hours, and not just for the 1980's nostalgia.

The "Premium Rush" of the 1980's is a source of good entertainment, raises some relevant questions, but it never achieves the magnitude of being too memorable or spectacularly interesting as the 2012 movie was. "Quicksilver" aims at many different directions - social drama, romantic story and some thrills in between - but it isn't fulfilling in any of those, just halfway there while "Premium Rush" which could also be all of those (and incredibly more relevant after 2008's economical crisis), deliver in all those aspects but no, instead is a helluva of entertainment flick which is so much fun to see and tolerate rather than the depressive overtones carried by the picture made during the Reaganomics.

In it, Kevin Bacon plays a successful trader who after losing everything on a bad business (never quite explained what really happened) joins a team of bike messengers, gladly working with them, gaining very little but finding true joy. It all happens in a finger snapping, just like that. The problem comes when he testifies one of his colleagues (Laurence Fishburne) being murdered by a drug dealer who uses their services as messenger to transport merchandising. And wouldn't be a successful 80's movie without a little romance between co-workers Bacon and Jami Gertz, and the main character's chance of redemption and rise back from where he started.

The bike scenes offer a great deal of excitement (specially the race between Fishburne and Bacon), cool to watch, there's good comic relief with Paul Rodriguez character but most of the dramatic subplots are annoying and should be reduced if not cut from the film at all costs; if focused only on the thriller it might be better but the villain is quite obnoxious, not because of the character is more because of a bad performance from the actor. The driven force of "Quicksilver" - and I don't know if this was intentional or not - is that is practically showing how people can be creative in troubled times, finding useful solutions for their problems. Such clichéd positivism was quite alright, if only they didn't took a lot of time after a slow and very depressive beginning that is more inclined to make you turn off the movie than to watch it.

Enjoyable for the majority of moments and because of the soundtrack - specially the Peter Frampton theme played at the opening scene. 7/10

Hey, I liked this movie. Bacon puts in a solid performance both as an actor and as a bike courier who is trying to turn his life around after loosing big time on the stock exchange.

Positives- The music score is great and if you are feeling the need for a little of the 80's, you could do a lot worse.

Negatives- okay, so the plot is a little light on. Some of the acting supports are a little rough too, but hey you got to love the red berret.