Wow.What starts as a police procedural quickly turns into one of the best Filme Noires of the last 30 years, right up there with Blood Simple.Black director Carl Franklin is at the peak of his craft as he creates a tale that builds and builds. Bill Paxton gives the performance of his life as the town cop who the locals call "Hurricane" but he doesn't get the joke. The audience gets it. And Michael Beach gives an unforgettable performance as a stone killer who barely blinks once during the entire movie.Billy Bob gives basically the same performance he has been giving for his entire career along with his signature line, "Goddammit." So it is hard to single his one out.ONE FALSE MOVE is a terrible title for his film and one suspects it was the working title and no one remembered to to change it.A wonderful piece of work from all concerned.

Here's one of the great indie flicks of 1993, where more so it's a film. The story is so well plotted, in what is a flawless movie/detective thriller. What's great about One False Move is we really spend time with the characters, an amazing quality I found here in this BB penned film, where too his threatening and menacing performance as a really bad dude, part of a trio, kind of chills ya, because he can just go off, at any moment. The other two wanted escapees, are a black guy with a very high IQ, and a sexy black woman, who provides a twist later on in the film. The trio are responsible for ripping off a band of drug dealers, and murdering them in a quite disturbing and violent fashion, taking no prisoners. This crime scene is heavy and raw viewing, in what is an impactful blow by blow film. Of course the stealer of the film is Bill Paxton, a likable, hyped up cop, pushing for a higher position, where he might of struck a little bit of opportunity, when assisting out of state cops. They're here to stop the three, who could be heading towards Paxton's town, where relatives of the black escapee, could be expecting her to show up. We even delve into the life of Paxton's present wife where the out of town cops, who made me hungry in a couple of scenes, watching them eat, depress at Paxton's place for barbecue time. The criminal trio, doesn't let us forget how dangerous they are, and what they're capable of, even the black woman, who's so all peachy creamy. The ending was kind of worrying as to Paxton's fate, but here is such a bloody well constructed film, that really captures the lives of it's characters, good or bad, big or small. In fact, future screenplay writers, should use this film, as a model example of how to construct tight story, and tight suspense moments, where truly the first ten minutes of BB's baby, really has you, and knocks you on your arse.

This fascinating first film by Carl Franklin stayed with me long after I turned it off--which is a good sign; my initial impulse was to give it a medium rating as higher ratings are alloted to films which are not only brilliant conceived and acted, but which ultimately are highly individual in tone and have something positive to say about the human condition.Perhaps that sounds a little pretentious for a cops and robbers film, which this is, a buddies-on-the-lam film combined with several contemporary film motifs--the absent father, forbidden love, and violent crime. Hitching the rating way up is first-rate ensemble acting, first with an in-depth performances from Billy Bob Thornton, as well as with lesser known but equally able performances from Cyndi Willimas, Michael Beach, and Bill Paxton (who turns out to be an unlikely hero of sorts).The final twenty minutes is mesmerizing, with a professional editing job that carefully links together all the complex interweaving gone before, taking the viewer all the way from LA to Arkansas back country. While not the greatest film ever made, One False Move accomplishes all its goals with perfection, pretends to be nothing it isn't, and ultimately offers a positive statement about people; that's why earns a high rating from me.

A sweetly innocuous small town gets a visit from some big time hoods and local sheriff Bill Paxton wants in on the bust, much to the annoyance of the two L.A. cops trailing them. But soon there is much more going on than a crime story. The sheriff's ex is traveling with the goons and her personal history with the sheriff then serves to fog up an otherwise straightforward pursuit. Motives and loyalties are questioned, temptations arise and personal drama takes the foreground. This second act shift from crime story to relationship drama is what gives the movie its power and makes it memorable and unusual. Too often, crime thrillers have tacked on romantic subplots that just clutter things up, but here the relationship and its fall-out are inextricable from the plot and are in fact pushing it ahead. The proceedings feel authentic and the drama has power rooted in that emotional authenticity. Cynda Williams is particularly good as the ex; she doesn't just appear in the movie, she haunts it. Her strong presence and her emotional history with the sheriff pervade and color everything that comes after her first appearance and she becomes the key figure and the great enigma at the center of the drama. I liked the dusty-but-harmless look of the small Arkansas town, and the way everybody in it manages to convey normalcy without being dull. This shows good writing and quality work on the part of the minor players. The whole movie is a testament to putting quality in the details. There are few false notes struck here, a rare thing for a low budget crime drama.