Even though Kevin Bacon has turned in some wonderful performances in the 35 years as a performer I for many years have dodged the 1986 low-budgeted thriller "Quicksilver". I just felt that Bacon has made far better movies than this. But once I purchased it on Blu-ray, I was pleased by the movie. For a meagre budget, this movie was very heart pumping, entertaining and once again, Bacon excels in another vibrant performance.

Granted it has its bizarre scenes. But what do you expect? This movie was released in the 1980's. But to delve deeper into the layers of the movie, I think it will satisfy an audience who like a vast variety of genres because there's some thing there for everyone to enjoy. Kevin Bacon plays the part of Jack Casey, who at one time was a top notch stockbroker who made a living trading stocks. One day, a bad tip has come his way and suddenly he gets knocked down from Cloud 9 to rock bottom, even his parents are left in the drenches of his financial downfall. Down on his luck, he ends up getting a job as a messenger cyclist and becomes an unwritten adviser to other messenger cyclists in San Francisco who take their low-payed jobs very seriously. With a talent pool of outstanding supporting players like Jami Gertz, Paul Rodriguez and Laurence Fishburne these performers utilize their abilities to provide, thrills, drama and action.

With the concentration of Mr. Casey returning back to his old job, he must resolve his past failures while trying to win back his dignity once again. Losing everything he's got has made Jack downtrodden and just fixated with hanging on to everything he still has. When his fellow messenger Hector (Paul Rodriguez) has ambitions to open up a hot-dog stand, Jack pulls all his resources to help Hector fulfill his dream. Jack stands up to his fellow messengers once drug-dealers begin to take over to deliver their goods. After being a witness to a murder, Jack learns first hand that these druggies are hiring messengers to do their dirty work, this leads to Jack coming to the aid of Terri (Jami Gertz) so that she does not bite in with their manipulative schemes.

Terri is quite vulnerable to give into their schemes, while Hector in an reluctant act of desperation joins in to make quick money to gather his funds. And while Jack's quest to go back to being a broker, takes a negative impact on the bikers as they're now part of this illegal operation. They're fates all depend on Jack for getting back to his old ways again as Jack has now become a hero to all of them.

The editing was tightly knitted and the action pieces were purely sublime as it compliments the rather dark sub-plot that this movie has to offer. This movie stands the test of time as a definitive Kevin Bacon 80's film that's worth to take a gander at. Though it was made 27 years ago, it has aged quite gracefully. Even though the Blu-ray offers no special features, the picture restoration is quite an improvement.

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.

He is also 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.....

The first thing that strikes you in this movie is Bacons moustache. It has to be the worst cinematic moustache I have ever seen.

It goes downhill pretty fast from there. Learning to live without the material things, which is portrayed as his girlfriend, Bacon settles down into his new life and never feels bitter about anything.

He meets Gertz who is waiting for The Lost Boys, and their are subplots involving minorities not having any money, gangsters wanting Terris to do stuff, and Larry Fishburne, getting killed at the end of the first act.

It's all pretty silly, and never really adds up to much. There is the obligatory 'look what I can do on a bike' scene, an over the top end sequence, and honestly a scene where a man in a bar hears some bad news and snatches the drink from the guy sitting next to him.

It all ends how you would expect, but it's an uphill struggle to get there.

I enjoyed Quicksilver. Most movies with the theme of renegades I will like. I'm glad Jack turned his back on the stock exchange and found something that made him feel alive. The worlds of messenger and stock broker were vastly different, but ironically similar in some aspects. The reality of the seedy, urban element that abuses parcel deliverers gave Quicksilver a gutty feel. In other words, the movie was not just doing stunts on a fixed-gear bike or barreling down one way streets the wrong way. The character of Hector gave some good context to the movie, and Jack showed his good side by helping him in whatever way he could. What I don't understand about Quicksilver are a couple of scenes where Jack seemed downright mean. One was when the female messenger Terri, played by Jami Gertz, showed up at his door, asking to stay the night because of necessity. Why did Jack have to act like such a @#$%? What was his point? The other scene was when Jack was eating dinner with his mother and father and he brought up the subject of seeing his father cry. He didn't have to say that. He was the one who lost all his father's money, and then insults him for crying about it? The messenger's hat that Jack picked up off the street at the beginning of the movie I expected him to return to its owner. Isn't that just poetic justice? Nothing ever comes of it. While Quicksilver is a little uneven at times and I was a little annoyed by the raucus and dangerous style of cycle riding displayed, this movie gives us a rare glimpse into the individualistic, rebellious, fleeting, demanding and carnival nature of urban bicycle messengers (and their dispatchers). I was convinced that a vital change had taken place in Jack's world view.., a change that would assist him no matter what he did for work in the future.