Quicksand

Let's put aside the absurdity of confronting someone breaking into your vehicle in the middle of the woods. Then also put aside the absurdity of your fight or flight instincts kicking in, but they tell you to take Flight after you've already gained the upper hand through Fight. Then put aside the ridiculousness of a thief wildly shooting into the woods because....if you can't see the person you're trying to shoot, the trees will suffice? The foundation for this movie is ridiculous is what I'm getting at.

The internet has been telling us for the last decade that it's actually near impossible to get fully submerged or even die in quicksand if you're a human being with intelligence greater than a 6 year old. This movie asks the question "what's the internet?"

I'd say this sunk fast, but even at only 86 minutes, it felt like it was four hours.

All I know about quicksand, I learned from movies and TV shows, mostly during the 70s. It's hardly ever brought up anymore. I mean, I guess if you count Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. And no one really counts that.

This was just plain dumb with LARGE melodramatic chunks, unnecessary slo-mo, poorly paced, really odd choices in acting and life-threatening twists that abruptly end without conclusion. Admittedly, there were tense moments, but again, they fizzle fast and back to more Hallmark/Lifetime scenes.

A really annoying couple are breaking up since this had to keep with the standard Man v Nature Movie Tropes. After what feels like an eternity, they land right into the Title Card and if you've seen Open Water, that's how this mostly plays out. Only...this had a much different ending. A hard one to believe, but they had a budget and had to end the movie as the money ran out.

When I was a kid, I was deathly afraid of quicksand because of what I saw on the tele. I've been told, it's nothing like what you see on TV or in movies. So, I just YouTubed how to survive quicksand and...okay, I'll give this movie some realism. But, JUST A LITTLE BIT.

Kinda hard to make an entire movie based on Quicksand and yet, they've done more with less. Open Water and 127 Hours just to name a couple. I WANTED to like this more, especially with my phobia. Nope.

I'm never ever going to the jungle; I vow and I'm gonna let that sink in.

***

Final Thoughts: Funny, the quicksand scene I remember most from any media was The Incredibly Hulk when David got stuck and was sinking until a blind chick tried to save him. Not before he freaked/hulked out, naturally. It's been an eternity since I saw that clip, but I suspect Hulk's anger would've made him sink even faster. Spoiler, he lives. Imagine if THAT'S what ultimately brought the Hulk down. So to speak.

It could have been a great movie in the hands of a good director. Because the subject is interesting. There is not 2 meters between life and death and you are sinking right before your eyes. There is nothing to press and get strength from.

But unfortunately the movie could not use this situation. It could have added more scary elements and given more humane reactions. Here we mostly watched the accounting of the couple who were about to break up. The reason for running into the swamp was also very absurd. Also, this swamp was not pulling in. That is also interesting. I have lost one of my legs in the swamp while running through high grass once in my life. It pulled in seconds like a bottomless pit. Thank God my other foot and hands were on solid ground. That is why the movie is quite far from convincing. The acting is also very amateur.

There is no sexuality or nudity in the movie.

This is your quintessential isolated survivalist thriller in the same vein as Fall, Frozen, The Shallows and the like. Unfortunately, due to a few different things, I don't think it was quite as successful as its predecessors.

Right off the bat, I noticed two things... The picture quality was quite nice and the acting was a little... sus. There were some genuine, real to life moments and interactions with everyone involved while also having some clunky, robotic ones and that aspect persisted throughout the film. I think this was mainly due to some spotty acting and a not super refined script.

As far as the play-by-play goes, I would say these films are some of the hardest to retain your viewers engagement throughout as it is often just a single setting with not all that much to explore or come up with. I think the foundation of what they had as far as action within the "predicament" was there but the pacing slowed down at points throughout and the ending began to drag.

A pretty big issue I had with this one was that there was a lack of consistency within the variables in this world. Sometimes the quicksand and its viscosity looked easy to navigate and sometimes impossible, somethings seemed to effect one person and their health more than it effected the other, at one point an object may seem too far and unattainable and suddenly with a seemingly unhelpful alteration it is now within reach.

I am not a particularly picky reviewer, and am all for letting things go for the sake of entertainment. However, small things such as these and lapses in continuity provide for a heavy does of suspension of disbelief to be enjoyed.

This was by no means an unsuccessful film or entirely unentertaining, but I definitely think it had some major issues that squandered some of the its potential and were detrimental to its success. I think this landed just below average at a 4.5 rounding down to a 4. Would recommend, but not with any fervency.

The actors were decent and the directing was ok but no matter how good the actors were or the directing the plot of this film along with the screen play are total garbage. I really felt like I wasted my time watching this especially with the dumb ending. I was somewhat surprised how the actors and director were able to pop up this film from being a complete failure but for most of the film these two actors are in swampish type quick sand. I knew before hand that this would be really difficult to do because anyone in that situation would spend their time trying to get out but that wasn't the case because they needed something to fill up the movie time so it was pretty absurd the things they did. I think this movie could have been a lot better if the quicksand was just a quarter of the film. Who is to say the film has to entirely be about quicksand?! Anyhow, I give this film a hard pass and there are many other films that are worth watching like the Sound of Freedom which was amazing!