Quicksand

Michael Dudikoff stars as Bill Turner, a marine psychiatrist who's new client Randi Stewart (Brooke Thesis) is accused of killing her father Gordon(Dan Hedaya) however some things come to surface such as meds with deadly side effects and such new things come to surface including Stewart's past that involves her brother(a politician by the way) in a story that manages to keep your interest throughout. Quicksand is a collaboration between American Ninja veterans Michael Dudikoff and director Sam Firstenberg, back in the military horizons where American Ninja took place. This time there are no ninjas (And sadly no Steve James) and what most surprises is just how much Dudikoff has softened his approach and has acted. There aren't really a lot of action sequences (Although there as an effective car-chase) and Dudikoff doesn't do any ninjitsu that one would expect from the people who brought you American Ninja. Quicksand is indeed somewhat old fashioned in the style it's made and directed, therefore the drama contradicts the look of the film at regular intervals while the terrible music score (the film's major weakness) comes off laughably overblown. Still there are some effective moments and Dudikoff shares good chemistry with Thesis and Richard Kind. Hedaya is of course wasted and some of the subplots are half baked but I'd be lying if I said that this movie doesn't contain an energetic quality that keeps you mildly engrossed.

* * out of 4-(Fair)

Unsurprisingly low budget, the sets consist of the same 3 buildings or so and the cast are led by straight to video regular michael dudikoff but not in an action hero role (tho dan hedaya is the biggest name, albeit in a small part). The main 'action' scene, a car chase, is full of consistency errors, but the low budget lends a feeling of authenticity (keeping away from the 80/90's folly of blowing up everything). All this is to be expected but the main thing is the story; it is relatively small and neat, they have kept it simple so that it seems to fit well with the scale of the film. I leave the synopsis to give you some of the story, but all in all I wouldn't say rent this (I gave it a 4) but it is surprisingly ok and I actually wanted to watch the whole film to see how it all turned out in the end.

The crew crammed an amazing number of inaccuracies into just the first 10 minutes: (1) The Corps would not assign an enlisted woman to the base of her general father. (2) Even if the officers-club bartender were a Marine, he would not have been serving drinks in uniform. (3) The enlisted woman would not have been allowed in the officers club, even in civilian clothes. (4) The enlisted woman in civilian clothes would not have been allowed to drive the jeep. (5) There would have been range personnel, not just the two senior officers, at the target range. (6) Everybody at the target range would have been wearing ear protection.

This abysmal film highlights the need for military advisers. We know that movies are fictitious stories, but they must seem plausible to be enjoyable. This film's excessive number of inaccuracies rubs our noses in the fiction, spoiling our enjoyment. There was no reason to believe that filmmakers would devote any more effort to details of the story than to details of the Marine Corps, so there was no reason to watch much more of the film.

There's more entertainment in a couple of fortune cookies.