Un faux mouvement

Bad language and violence aside, this is one of the best movies of the 90's! This is actually, a lighthearted police drama with many surprises. One of the surprises is the depiction of small town Arkansas. They may have finally gotten it right! It is slower, safer and more relaxing in comparison to the life that the cops from L.A. have and there isn't any stereotyping that I could find! Another surprise is the performance by Billy Bob. He may be one of the most evil drug dealers I have ever seen on the big screen.

A word of caution though. This movie, at least in my opinion, has one of the most violent (not overly graphic, but sadistic) openings to a movie I have seen in a film. The way the murders and tortures are committed are a little hard to watch. But if you get past that, the movie settles down a lot and you really want to see the "bad guys" get what's coming to them! And the language is extremely rough. I saw the movie again on BRAVO and while there is a lot of silent moments, where they cut out the language, nothing else is cut from the film. A remarkable film.

I give this film an A-.

I watched this film in 1991 and I still think about it frequently. It has become a standard to compare other films. The violence at the beginning made me uncomfortable, and I almost turned it off. I am glad that I didn't, because I would have missed one of the best films of the decade. The movie's pace and tone are perfectly natural - not artificial in any way. I like the scene in the diner best. The two LA cops are joking with each other about the backward local sheriff (Paxton), and they didn't know he was standing there. The awkwardness of the moment encapsulated the film.

I think One False Move, Fargo, and The Sweet Herafter are a great trilogy of movie making at its best. All set in small - real towns with real people.

This modern film noir pits three violent criminals on the run from a violent drug rip-off against two LA cops aided by a rural sheriff. The trio of bad-guy consists of a white-trash loser (Thornton), his African-American girlfriend (Williams), and their high-IQ, sociopath friend (Beach) also black. After committing multiple murders in California they high-tail to Thornton's and Williams' hometown of Star, Arkansas to lay-low. Their journey across the backroads of Texas is fraught with danger, (it's not like they don't stand out) and unbeknownst to them, the cops are waiting....

Very well done without the "look at me I'm so realistic" dialogue too often found in this much copied genre. One of the best of its kind, well worth the rental.

This one keeps you on edge and it gives me the creeps, still, it is a well crafted, beautifully acted movie. I guess it's a bit too real for me. The murders are extremely violent. The less I see of drug addicts, coke heads and drug dealers, the better. Bill Paxton is absolutely terrific in this film and he outshines the rest of the cast, who are very good. Why haven't we seen more of Cynda Williams and Michael Beach, they are very fine actors? The film is well paced, beautifully photographed and there's even a little homage to "North by Northwest". This genre of realistic films is definitely not my 'cop of tea', but I can appreciate a well made film. Kudos to Carl Franklin for a job well done!

I have seen this movie twice. The first time, for the whole movie I was on the edge of my seat. This was an intense film. From the extremely brutal beginning to the climatic end, I couldn't relax once. I did notice the fact that race played no factor; all colors were represented on both sides. In 1992, I had seen over fifty movies at the theater so I put together a top ten list and this movie made it easily. Since I knew how the movie would play out, on my second viewing I was able to look for other things. This time I noticed though the thrilling aspects of the film were used to set the movie in motion, underneath there was an examination of big city meets rural town. Amazingly, the main characters weren't treated as stereotypes. Each character (I count six) was fleshed out but not too much. There were no judgments on which life was better or any advantages or disadvantages to either style of living. In a lot of ways the film reminded me of John Sayles' movies. In other words a movie that a lot of thought went into making it. A great film.