Quicksilver

1986 "Kevin Bacon is Jack Casey. He traded in his three-piece suit for a ten-speed and the streets."
5.7| 1h45m| PG| en| More Info
Released: 14 February 1986 Released
Producted By: Columbia Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

Jack Casey used to be a hot-shot stock market whiz kid. After a disastrous professional decision, his life in the fast lane is over. He loses his nerve and joins a speed delivery firm which relies on bicycles to avoid traffic jams of San Francisco, is attracted to a fellow bicycler, Terri, and befriends Hector, a budding entrepreneur. Can Jack regain his nerve and his self-respect, and rebuild his life on a more sound basis?

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Jeremy McClain I usually don't let little things like geographic errors bug me, but the switching back and forth between New York and San Francisco gets to be too much. Some chase and race scenes have notable SF landmarks, like Coit Tower and a brief glimpse of the TransAmerica Pyramid, in the background. I guess they really wanted those hills. There was also the convenient "dead end" off the Embarcadero Freeway, used to get rid of Gypsy. (That freeway is no more. It was declared unsafe after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.) Jack gets a name sticker with "PSE" on it. PSE is the abbreviation for Pacific Stock Exchange (also now defunct) which was in San Francisco. The messengers hang out in Civic Center.Then there's the NYC aspects. One of the deliveries is to West 88th Street. The rough accents are all Brooklyn/Bronx. The tight traffic scenes are all Manhattan. The city buses are from NYC. SF just doesn't have that many yellow cabs on the streets.Does it really matter? Perhaps for people who aren't familiar with either city it's all background. But when the movie has very little going for it in the first place, the location flip flops are a huge distraction.
roghache 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.
dwpollar 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.
bobwhitt1210 Anyone who has a 6 digit salary would agree that the only thing better than have a great income is not having one...which is exactly what Kevin Bacon decides to do in Quicksilver. Bacon is a stockbroker, the best there is, but somehow manages to lose all his and his parents money. What happens next is that he decides that being a bike messenger is the only life he can have now. He learns all the bike tricks and can even do jumps. This may not be suitable for children since he rides around without a helmet or reflectors. Things to remember when you go on your next bike ride. A. Check you tires, make sure you haven't caught any debris in them. B. Make sure you have a nice hairdo so old ladies aren't offended by your appearance. c. Don't talk to dogs you don't know, stray dogs may bite you.