One False Move (1992)

Simply Perfect

Don't listen to the negative reviews

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

I can't tell if Fantasia is a hooker or just a junkie. Either way, she sells out her LA 'friends' to her pimp/boyfriend, Ray.Ray and Pluto (cellmates from San Quinton) are looking to make some easy money, and Fantasia knows some street dealers. They turn up at their place and torture them until they tell them where their supplier lives.Then they murder them all. Pluto turns out to be a psychopath who gets turned on when he's stabbing people.They go over to the supplier and rob them of their cocaine and $15k. And them murder them all. Well, nearly all. Fantasia finds a kid in a back room but pretends that she can't find him.They get stopped by a state trooper while travelling out of town. Naturally, they kill him too, because that's the best way to stay off the radar. But by this time, they've already got a dedicated group of law enforcement hunting them down.Fantasia takes a bus to Star City, her hometown, while the murder duo travel from LA to Texas to sell the drugs to a pusher known to Pluto. When the pusher tries to bargain down the price, Ray and Pluto kill them all. Are we noticing a trend of stupidity yet, from the so-called 150 IQ genius Pluto?The LAPD get a tip that they might be heading to a small town in Arkansas, so they contact the sheriff there ("Hurricane" Dixon), who is very excited to be involved in a big city case, seeing as it might be his ticket for reassignment to the city force.The reason they might be stopping there is that Ray has an uncle who lives there and Fantasia (real name Lila) grew up there and has a kid living with her family.Dixon stakes out the house, and finds Lila who has come back to visit her son (turns out the father is Dixon, who was already married and has a child of his own). To keep that news to herself, Dixon promises if Lila calls in Ray and Pluto then he'll let her escape.They arrive, and everyone dies in a shootout, except Dixon (wounded) and his illegitimate child. Lila gets a bullet to the back of the head from Pluto, which, to be fair, she totally deserves. Three of her friends were brutally tortured and murdered because of her. She also murdered a cop (when they were pulled over earlier). And she abandoned her son after birth to go live in Hollywood and ended up a total loser.

Gosh, I found this movie to be overrated.Many favorable reviews have applauded the depth of characterization in this film. Frankly, I found the characters to be quite caricatured and stereotypical, from Bill Paxton's small-town cop with big dreams, to loony toons villains Billy Bob Thornton and Michael Beach (although played menacingly enough).Plot-wise, there were really no interesting twists and turns in this film. The dialogue is mostly just aggressive or profane. The reveal of the relationship between Hurricane and Fantasia is fine enough, but the writing of the interaction between those characters is so void of subtext; it almost feels a bit like a soap-opera.The film looks nice, the locations are evocative and the performances are generally quite good. But the best film of 1992, according to Gene Siskel!? Hmph.

Violent opening scene. Criminals on the run while a few cops go to a town where the criminals might end up, too. In that town the cops meet with a cop who might not be so right for the job, or is he? It turns out he has a history with one of the criminals and (more) drama ensues when that (female) criminal returns to the town in question and the other two criminals follow later. In the end violence explodes again, immediately followed by a sentimental bit.'One false move' is quite the unusual film (playing with a lot crime thriller drama conventions) that uses (strong) violence only a few times, but mostly builds on drama and characters. Maybe some things are far fetched (the girlfriend of the sheriff turning out to be the one he got pregnant years ago) and some things are not all too credible (would the brilliant knife-specialist really not aim to kill straight away - and go for the throat - when attacking the sheriff?), but these may be coincidences and odd choices that people in real life make sometimes, too. The only part that I didn't particularly like was the overly sentimental very end (when the boy gets left alone in the cop car and wanders over to the dying sheriff).But there is some fine acting, it has an atmospheric soundtrack and it was more than adequately filmed. A small 8 out of 10. P.s. There's a thread here about the meaning of the title. Besides to the obvious nature of the situations at hand, it also applies to the 'false move' that the sheriff made in the past with the black girl, whom he loved but then discarded - all too easily, as his past comes back to haunt him.

...heralding the rise of at least two notable acting careers, "One False Move" commits only a few of its own while limning the classic tragic arcs of a handful of well-drawn characters. With an admirably tight script by co-writer/star, Billy Bob "Slingblade" Thornton, and longtime collaborator, Tom "The Gift" Epperson, "One False Move" not only helped solidify Thornton's creds, it equally established Bill "Near Dark" Paxton as an actor with more than scene-chewing chops. It's a simple noir-ish tale of the inevitable collision of two homicidal ex-cons with a down-home Dudley Do-Right of a sheriff. Thornton's loose cannon is nicely balanced by a cucumber cool Michael "Third Watch" Beach as his dispassionate partner with a penchant for knives, while the pair's quest for drug money is enabled and then scuttled by Fantasia, Thornton's chippy girlfriend (and real-life wife at the time), Cynda "Mo' Better Blues" Williams. After a grim opening to establish the bad guys' brutality, "One False Move" settles into a groove reminiscent of an Elmore Leonard novel as its protagonists move toward their fates. Carl "Devil in a Blue Dress" Franklin, a veteran TV actor turned director, coaxes solid performances from his leads and supporting cast, ably abetted by DP James L. "Don't Answer the Phone!" Carter, and choice music from two founding members of the Climax Blues Band.I mentioned that there are a few false moves, and there are, but to me the only egregious one is a scene (that could have easily been rewritten) in which an Arkansas state trooper handles a traffic stop in a decidedly unprofessional manner, much to his regret. See if I'm not right when you watch the film; it caused me to lose a great deal of sympathy for a character that requires it desperately. At any rate, it's still a minor quibble, and the story only stumbles a bit because of it. Highly recommended to genre fans everywhere.