Quicksand

Plot synopsis:
Martin Raikes is an American bank investigator who is sent to Monaco to check up on the suspicious financial dealings of a movie production. After the business trip, Martin, who is divorced, will fly to London to visit his daughter.
Martin is met by the film company's CFO, Lela Forin, who introduces him to the movie's leading man, washed-up action star Jake Mellows.
Something is rotten with the production, though, and Martin senses it. Unfortunately, he sticks his nose in a little too deep for the corrupt bankrollers' tastes, and is soon deemed a threat. Martin is first offered a mega-bribe, but he rejects it. As it turns out, the bankrollers are Russian mafia, led by Oleg Butraskaya.
Martin suddenly finds himself framed for an assassination attempt, and the hostile authorities—on the payroll of the mob—want to kill him. American authorities are also hot on his trail, investigating him for money laundering, among other false charges.
As Martin sifts through the mystery, he reveals the nefarious nature of Oleg's rackets, which include illegal pornography, kidnapping and money laundering. Not knowing whom to trust, he turns to Lela, but soon, she, too, is marked for death. Jake, who has gambling debts, is persuaded by Oleg to speak lines for the film that are actually used to make Martin believe the actor is holding Martin's daughter captive.
After a fight between them, Martin and Jake join forces with Lela to stage an illusion during which Oleg incriminates himself to the law. Lela develops a new film project for Jake and a personal interest in Martin.

Tags: suspenseful, violence

Review:
if you've got too much spare time (like I do) and feel like a nice, B-movie night at home, you could do much worse than renting "Quicksand".
Michael Keaton and Michael Caine gave stellar performances, which were supported by a wonderful European cast.If you want to see a great movie with great actors and great footage of Europe, this is one of the best choices I can think of..
Martin Raikes is a banker who gets way over his head with one of the bank's client a group which is used as money laundry for the Russian mob in France.
This film is a horrific waste of time, money and actors..
It does not even make up for this by being remotely worth watching: the acting is appalling, and even Michael Caine and Michael Keaton cannot make up for the terrific lack of ability in terms of plot, script and direction.
Like between Keaton's character and the lead actress - you almost hope there's nothing going on between them because it'd be too predictable, but at the same time, you don't have the chance to hope so because it seems like there's no spark at all between them.
Jake Mellows (Michael Keaton) is a divorced American banker sent to Monaco to investigate the possibility of laundering of money.
In Monaco, he meets Lela Forin (Judith Godrèche), the financial manager of Miramax films, and Michael Caine, a decadent, alcoholic and gambler previously famous actor of action movies.
The excellent Michael Caine is not decadent yet like his character, and Michael Keaton is a good actor.
It actually had potential to have suspense and an edge on your seat type of thrill ride, but ends up like most thrillers, because if you've seen the big shockers, then you have pretty much from that point see the rip offs.
A story of international intrigue with Keaton's character framed for murder and desperately trying to exonerate himself while on the run from both good and evil elements, "Quicksand" sinks slowly into its own messy conglomerated story which tries to do too much in too little time.
Its good cast and nice locations can't make up for the poor screenplay, the herky-jerky flow,  the numerous unanswered questions, and countless plot holes making this flick best saved for broadcast where one can switch channels with no liability as soon as they find themselves losing interest; which may be sooner than later.
STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All CostsBanking boss Martin Fraikes (Michael Keaton) is sent off to France to investigate a suspected fraud taking place on a movie set.However,as he delves deeper and deeper into the case,he finds himself framed for murder,money laundering and his daughter is kidnapped.It's a web of lies that leads directly to has-been movie star Jake Mellows (Michael Caine) right down to the local mob...Everything about this film is back to front,topsy-turvy.It's been held back since 2001,but I'd have believed you if you'd told me it had been made in 1991,judging by it's presentation.Keaton's character finds himself in a host of inexplicable situations in the film,yet on the front cover he appears the confident,self-assured villain.It looks like a really entertaining film,but it really isn't.It's a film with production values and attention-payed-to-detail that appears really befitting to the state of both it's lead stars careers,Keaton re-appearing out of nowhere after a five year absence having last appeared on the big screen five years ago in the children's film Jack Frost and Caine moreorless just playing himself as a washed-up,has-been movie star who nowadays can only seem to get work appearing in low-budget fudd like this.It's a film of laugh-out-loud implausibility that,as it veers towards the end,steadily progresses into out and out preposterousness.It's nice to see Keaton return and it's very hard to see why his career has veered into DTV oblivion and someone like Richard Gere still manages to rake in the big bucks,but that's truly where the novelty wears off.**.
'Quicksand' was showing this evening on CH 5, Now I'm always very wary of watching movies on that particular channel as it has become synonymous with terrible films, but I decided to watch purely on it's starring actors, in this case being Michael Caine & Michael Keaton, It's not a terrible film by any means, but it's just so mediocre, it's the kind of Film that even Steven Segal himself would probably turn down.Michael Keaton plays a New York Banker who travels to the South of France to investigate possible fraud on the Film that his company is financing, and soon finds himself up to his next in dirty cops & Russian gangsters and ends up getting framed for murder....YAWN!!!!Been there, done it, got the t-shirt!
there is nothing in this film which hasn't been done better before.Michael Caine is really slumming it here, like he has done many times before.....
and makes what could be described as a glorified cameo.The Original 'Batman' Keaton pretty much disappeared after picking ghastly Movies to appear in, in the mid/late 90's, but really this is below him, Caine is merely cashing the check.apparently this was filmed in 2001 and not released for nearly 3 years...that tells you just about everything.as I've said above for a Film that never saw the inside of a Movie Theater it's not terrible, and watchable on TV on a Winter's night, but don't spend any money, it's not even worth the rental.**1/2 out of *****.
So says The Daily Mail as they not only want to give this film away as a 'freebie' with their newspaper, they are trying to make us want it too, because, this is a Michael Keaton, not Caine, film.Caine gets to shout 'bloody' again (as in his most famous ever line, in The Italian Job), this time about money he's owed, or he owes - not always sure who is pointing guns at whom, or why, the next, they're in a heap on the floor.
there's a very convenient film crew who almost knew he was about to do it...The investigating police are dodgy as there's all sorts of cover-ups going on, to do with porno film rackets and illegal immigrants and such, I think..(nothing too explicit, cert 15).Anyway, this credibility straining movie, in old style 4:3 ratio has its moments, cannot recall too many of them, now, that it's finished, except Caine, who is really quite obnoxious, but in a Michael Caine sort of way - i.e - we know he's such a great guy in real life so we forgive him (& for his not-too-rare dodgy choices of film roles) as he gets to try strangling folk, with his bare hands as well as string, or rope, or whatever...Some of the French actresses are pleasing, both to the eye and their attempt at adding a different perspective to an otherwise quite unpleasant film.Never mind, this is still better than some Michael Caine movies out there and the transfer quality and sound is OK..
When Michael Keaton's character (the compliance officer) starts sniffing around, the bad guys decide to frame him for murder.
It was obviously a "C"-level movie that got bumped up to "B" level because it has actors like Caine and Keaton in it.
I actually went into this movie with high hopes because I love Keaton.
Anyone who gave this movie a good review is actually working for the distributor or production company.
It's not even debatable, it's soooo bad, and the goofs are so glaring.I honestly assume that the reason Keaton and Caine signed on was because they owed someone a favor, or because it was a slow time for them & they got to take their families on vacation in the South of France for free.Goofs and plot holes from beginning to end.
Incidentally, irritation is a major factor in the story, the main character, an ultra pedantic controller from a global consultancy enterprise (frankly a great, contemporary creation and a good, convincing performance by Michael Keaton) represents just a little, irritating grain of sand in the international machinery of crime.The plot is the 39 steps, Saboteur, North by Northwest etc.
Incidentally, irritation is a major factor in the story, the main character, an ultra pedantic controller from a global consultancy enterprise (frankly a great, contemporary creation and a good, convincing performance by Michael Keaton) represents just a little, irritating grain of sand in the international machinery of crime.The plot is the 39 steps, Saboteur, North by Northwest etc.
If Quicksand helps to bring this to mind, all the better.They had some excellent location scouts working on this movie.
If Quicksand helps to bring this to mind, all the better.They had some excellent location scouts working on this movie.
Nor is it one that either of the two Michael's will be remembered for.For me the freshest thing to come out of this film was the performance of the female lead Judith Godreche.
Serbedzija acts in theaters and in the movies and with Caine he's the only man in this crew who's doing that.
Serbedzija is far better actor then Keaton and you have to believe me on this one because you haven't watched most of the movies where Serbedzija plays main character.
How it ended up like this is beyond me.I mean, there are some okay moments but it's like it was shot in another language and then translated....it just doesn't work.I got lost so many times as to what the story line was I gave up...and some of the linkages are so weak a six-year-old could have done better at show and tell.I'm not going to spoil it for anyone because I honestly can't bring myself to parrot the story line....with it's predictable ending.At one point though, I did think it was art imitating life imitating art, or was that life imitating art...never mind..the premise has something to do the illusion of movie making and how things aren't always as they appear to be, but it's done with such heavy handed direction and editing, it's a complete yawner.My advice?
It involves Michael Keaton as a banking executive who travels to France to investigate possible financial irregularities, only to be ensnared in a cleverly engineered frame when he gets too close to the truth.
The workaholic head of the compliance section of a New York bank flies to Monaco to investigate unusual deposits from an offshore bank.He meets a down-on-his-luck international film star who has become embroiled in criminal activities.From the very first frame you know this is going to suck.Poor production values.
he's acting was so unbelievably bad and almost looked like out of place in every scene of this movie.
in order to make the stupidly awkward scenario go along, the guy refused a full case of $$$cash bribery and let it slide, the next day checked out earlier without any reason, but then he still could receive the poster that the female chief financial officer of the movie company in front the hotel check-in/check-out counter by someone so timely, yet the female chief financial officer didn't know that he already checked out of the hotel??
This film proves that Michael Keaton is best suited for comedy.
And the arousing turn of events towards the end is well worth the wait.If you watch these sort of movies I can see how some of it might seem predictable.
But this movie kept me on my toes most of the time.Again, we're talking about people's daughters here..
Very JFK in concept.Originally sent to Monaco to investigate some suspected money-laundering, Keaton is up against officialdom, the bad guys AND the eight ball...after barely the first reel.
Caine as an alkified loser, living on the memories of his former screen tough-guy roles is just painting by numbers...he could have phoned-in his characterisation for all the impact he makes here.Having said all that though, QUICKSAND is oddly watchable despite the "blinking corpse" and the crap production values.
When his bank notices a rather large transfer of money, he decides to go himself to investigate, at a movie studio in Nice, France.When he gets there he meets Michael Caine, playing an actor, Jake Mellows.
Jake has a gambling habit, often going into debt, but always figures his acting income will bail him out.Pretty French actress Judith Godrèche is Lela Forin, who works for the studio.Old Serbian actor Rade Serbedzija is a Russian Oleg Butraskaya running a not so legitimate business.These 4 main characters interact throughout the movie, and quickly Martin figures out the studio isn't really making a movie, but are a channel for laundering money from illegal operations, some of which involves kidnapping women and apparently selling them into sexual slavery.
What started out as an audit soon becomes Martin's scrambling for his life.I like Michael Keaton, he is an interesting actor who creates interesting roles.
This movie is a bit better than its IMDb rating would indicate.SPOILERS: People who get close to the truth get murdered.
It might be surprising to some that a film starring Michael Keaton and Michael Caine went straight to DVD in most countries; it is less surprising to anyone who watches the film.
You've seen the story a zillion times before: innocent man framed for murder, on the run, stranger in a strange land, trying to prove his innocence, picks up female ally / romantic interest along the way, corrupt police, thick-accented Russian mobsters, blah blah blah.
Keaton is on autopilot here, but the supporting cast (not so much Caine, who for the first HOUR makes only a few fleeting cameo appearances, as Kathleen Wilhoite back in New York) try to inject some life into this clichéd, boring time-killer.
Quicksand would be a particular sort of terrible film known as the "Movie Star Vacation Project".
It's where not-all-that-talented people manage to get the money to produce their horrible script solely because one or more genuine movie stars agrees to act in it, but the stars only agree to do it because the film is being shot in a certain location where the star would like to hang out for a couple of months.
They don't give a damn whether the movie is any good or not, they just look at it as a paid vacation.Martin Raikes (Michael Keaton) is a bank examiner who goes to the south of France to check on an allegation of improper financial behavior at a movie studio.
It turns out Oleg is using the movie studio as a way to launder money, something which Raikes doesn't appear at all close to discovering but Oleg decides to frame him for the murder of a French police official anyway.
Eventually he and Lela team up with Jake Mallows (Michael Caine), an aging British movie star who Oleg has hired to make a pretend film as part of the movie studio facade.
But while these filmmakers have clearly watched those sorts of movies, they clearly don't understand how to tell that story themselves.
There's a point where you can tell Michael Keaton has figured out just how much this movie sucks and decides to see how far he can push the suck.
That's unlike Michael Caine, who does the same professional job and takes the story as seriously as he does anything else.There's no way Keaton and Caine were paid a lot of money to do this film and even though Caine is a old-school actor who'll take almost any job offered to him, you know the only reason they're in this is because when they weren't on set, they could lounge around Europe on the producer's dime.
1_Always use a movie star to narrate the ransom message.2_Always show the ransom message on a public cinema (and on the loop).3_Always walk in the streets without any make up while you're a fugitive (despite having an access to a make up room).4_Always stand under the light in front of the bad guys who are looking for you.5_Always meet the police in the same place that the main bad guy, who wants to kill you, uses to hang out.6_Always wait to the last second to alert the girl that there is a bomb on her boat.7_Always allure the men while being pregnant, and being in love with your man.8_Always tight the good man's kidnapped daughter beside the lunch table so she can be tortured by seeing other people eating (while she's not), and be close to the telephone if her daddy talks.9_Always kill the bad guys who are fighting arresting while they have no weapons with them.10_Always in France the TV opens on the English-speaking news channels.11_Always the substitute clothes, that are found accidentally, fit the runners from justice.12_Always frame an American.
What I really loved about this movie is Michael Caine's line "Are you his daughter ?!".
And his frankness about doing some works like that movie only for the money.Finally, "Do you have lunch with me?" Well, NOOOOOOO !!.
I assume that young people are needed for Quicksand to properly tell its story.
I still rate Quicksand, though I do not like such genre.
Clare at age 13, playing the daughter of the main actor, Keaton.
Quicksand is a surprisingly good thriller.Quicksand stars Michael Keaton, Michael Caine and the professor guy who dies at the start of Mission Impossible 2.
As soon as Raikes becomes a difficulty the Russians set him up for the murder of a French cop.Caine takes on the role of Jake Mellows, a washed up actor with a serious gambling problem who is hired by the Russians to front a bogus action movie called Quicksand in order to launder the money.
When Mellows is made aware of the fake film and Raikes discovers his daughter has been kidnapped, they must work together to bring down the Russian criminals.The story is fairly simple and quite entertaining.
Quicksand is by no means a great thriller, in fact there was no real action to speak of, but it's intriguing and the performances of Keaton and Caine make it worthwhile.