Customer Reviews

Quicksand

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

QUICKSAND is a terrific action drama that wears a good script well acted by a strong cast headed by Michael Keaton and Michael Caine and well directed by fully in-control Director John Mackenzie. The topic of money laundering is particularly timely at this point in our history so gathering information about the ins and outs of this type of scam is apropos. Michael Keaton is an obsessive-compulsive American investigator sent to France in his role as investigator and ends up being setup as an accused assassin. He is forced into escape and into hiding until he uncovers the truth about the company under investigation (actually a porn industry) and with the help of a has-been actor (played superlatively by Michael Caine) finds a way out. The mechanisms for this good guy-bad guy chase and intrigue make for edge-of-the seat suspense. Not a great movie but certainly one of the better intrigue films greatly enhanced by a strong cast of supporting actors in excellent cameo roles. Recommended.

It seems that not alot of people have watched this little gem of a film, by the number of reviews that it has...but I have to say, that with the likes of Michael Keaton and Michael Caine, this film delivered a great action movie!!! The script was in a nice tight package, and the actors took the parts well. It was one of those films that made me wonder what was going to happen next.

Christopher Berry

Thoroughly enjoyable film, great soundtrack, locations and story.
Miichael Keaton is well-cast as a mild-mannered excecutive whose life is sent into turmoil when he goes to investigate shady deals being made through his company. Michael Caine as always is superb and really has fun with his role as Movie Star Jake Mellows. The supporting cast is great and the plot is well written.
Note: Watch the featurette after you see the film.

I bought this DVD because I'm a huge Michael Keaton fan. While he and Michael Caine are great in the movie, this just seems to be another ho-hum crime thriller. The acting is good, the story is okay, I don't think you ever really find yourself overly rooting for the bad guy. If it wasn't for the two main stars, you probably wouldn't watch.

This was a sleeper, but I went on to discover that this was an excellent movie. Although Michael Keaton has perfoprmed better in other roles, this was a good reversal of a drama role from his standard comedy. Don't take that wrong, he is a great actor, something that these other so called actors could strive for in their performances.

I really wanted to enjoy this crime thriller because it starred two of my favorite actors, Michael Keaton and Michael Kaine, but as much as I tried to be objective, this one didn't shine for me. The story never came together well because the directing and editing was simply awful. Even the star power of Keaton and Kaine couldn't overcome the lousy directing. The scenes were chopped and stapled together with impunity.

This film had the potential to be a success. It had a reasonably well written script and the right actors to play the parts. It's a shame it didn't turn out that way. I own the DVD, but it's one I won't be watching again any time soon.

QUICKSAND is a formulaic, by the numbers thriller set in the world of corporate money laundering. Michael Keaton plays Martin Raike, a bank executive who goes to France to investigate the possibility of money laundering there. He meets a lovely CEO (Judith Godreche), who also introduces him to a has been action star (the ubiquitous Michael Caine). It isn't too long, though, that Keaton is set up to take the fall as the assassin of the crooked chief of police, and is on the run to prove his innocence. While the movie is certainly not a bad one, it would have been much better if there had been more of Caine in his delightful role as a has been actor. His scenes with Keaton are the only true energy in the picture and had there been more, QUICKSAND could have been a far more enjoyable film.

A relatively few scenes from Michael Caine add a bit of inebriated class to this routine but entertaining thriller. Michael Keaton handles the lead well, if not with flair, and a number of supporting roles are well done. All about a banker who gets caught up in a not entirely clear scam, which seems, as a sideline, to have young woman raped, for no apparent reason except to provide some not very blatant sex to the proceedings, and is framed for murder. Russian gangsters, corrupt police, a beautiful, more or less innocent, young employee of the chief gangster, and assorted others make for a somewhat confusing but decent film. Pleasant viewing when nothing really good is available.

Five stars for Michael Keaton (I could watch that man read the PHONE book). The movie however, STUNK.

There are sooo many plot holes and oddities in this movie (the girl lying "dead" in bed is blinking, no blood on the white sheets even though she's massacred), Keaton's character is somehow easily able to go from area to area without any transportation. He's able to send email without logging into any email service. It takes him 5 minutes to padlock a woman in a caged room and then is able to get her out of there in 2 seconds (and HOW did he get the key?). The whole movie is like that -- where you watch it and go, "WAIT a minute. You can't DO that!"

I thought quicksand was an ok movie but not the best work of either Michael's, Caine or Keaton. I got a little lost during the middle of it but there was a lot of different twists and turns throughout the film along with some action and suspense. Good enough to see once I would say if you are either a Keaton or Caine fan.

Peter J. Miller
Traverse City, MI
peterjoemiller@gmail.com