Lack of good storyline.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Michael Keaton is banker Martin Raikes. By his co-workers' descriptions, and by his own admission, he is a demanding boss and a thorough businessman. 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. Plus, Martin gets very cleverly set up so that it looks like he murdered a key French official. 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. And, I really was mesmerized with Ms Godrèche, I love her accent when speaking English, plus she is nicely attractive. This movie is a bit better than its IMDb rating would indicate.SPOILERS: People who get close to the truth get murdered. They go after Martin but he is too smart. He has a teen daughter who lives in England with her mom and stepdad, and the bad guys kidnap her for ransom. But Martin outfoxes them and in the final scenes sets up a video camera sending a live streaming video to computers everywhere, showing the bad guys for what they are. He and Lela set up a production company, and seem destined for more.

This movie has a very sexual, very perverse, and very twisted angle in its plot. It's only a small part of the movie, but I was immensely aroused. If you are a very sexual, perverse, or twisted individual, this mystery will have a very rewarding turn of events for you.We're talking about people's daughters here.The dialog kept me amused -- the characters weren't all stupid. 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.

First of all I have to admit I was a little misled by the title of the movie. I saw the title "Quicksand" and immediately thought it was a cheap horror film. This is a reasonable mistake to make. I feel films with such titles should include an explanatory note or a picture of a mutated monster if relevant to the story (most of the time this is the case), in order to establish their true nature. 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. Keaton plays Martin Raikes; a dedicated Compliance Officer with a New York bank who investigates unusual activity with bank funds. An anomaly is identified with the bank account connected to a film studio in France. It becomes clear that Russian gangsters are using the facility to launder money. 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. The French backdrop is stunning at times and the acting isn't too bad.It's mostly Keaton, acting as Keaton usually does (technically known as Keatonism) for most part of the film. The legend Caine turns up in the latter stages and in typical fashion steals the show. The Mission Impossible 2 professor doesn't really do much but a good choice for the head Russian gangster.Quicksand had some highlights. The fight between Caine and Keaton was quite funny and Keaton's daughter has a creepy English accent. They're not really highlights are they? Oh well, it kept me amused. 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.

This movie had potential. Speedy script: Class actors: competent crew; but somehow missed out. Half way through it became predictable. The denouement was hackneyed. There were enough bright moments to make it watchable through to the end but it is not a film I would ever watch again if I were given the choice. 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. Attractive and sparkling she earns the sympathy of the viewer which is something that the characters portrayed by Messrs. Caine and Keaton fail to do.