Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

SincereFinest disgusting, overrated, pointless

Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

powermandan One False Move is one of the key sleeper hits in film. It had a relative low-budget and was released straight-to-video. But word of mouth caused this to get a release in theatres soon after. It was the sleeper of 1992 that received acclaim by all. On "At the Movies" Gene Siskel ranked it as the best of the year while Roger Ebert ranked it the second best (behind Malcolm X). Usually surprises like this are always remembered, check out Rocky. Sure time has not been on its side and that's terrible for a film this good. It's just as bad as The Right Stuff from 1983 not aging well.Perhaps it is good that this is forgotten. That makes the surprise element of the watch stronger. If it was bigger, maybe some people would find it underwhelming and not meeting expectations. Nobody talks about this anymore, so that also gives me an intimate connection with this.The movie follows two parallel stories. The first is meeting a trio of violent drug dealers in Los Angeles. They're intense, profane, and ruthless enough to make the audience cringe while watching it. The movie opens with two extremely brutal drug busts--a good way to get the audience's attention. The trio consists of Billy Bob Thornton as the most vicious of the group, Ray; his reluctant girlfriend, Fantasia (Cynda Williams); and highly intelligent Pluto (Michael Beach). All the murders are brutal and they flee the state. A few times in the film they make boneheaded mistakes, but the guys' intensity and Pluto's brains can get them out of things. Although mistakes are made, we know they will definitely survive. Each scene with the trio are scary, but thrilling and fun. Also, we want them to stand a chance. Very few movies can successfully pull off unforgiving bad guys but still making them compelling.The other story deals with two LAPD cops who investigate the case and are led to the small town of Star City in Arkansas, where the sheriff Dale "Hurricane" Dixon (Bill Paxton) works with them. At first, there's some offbeat comedy as the big city cops bond with the cop from an uneventful town. As the deadly trio's route leads to the Dixon's town, the cops soon find secrets about Fantasia that really raise the stakes.In great crime films, the bad guys are always more fun. While the scenes with the bad guys are more fun here too, we still get great joy out of the good guys. And the secrets that raise the stakes make the heart beat faster. It is all about the characters. Character-driven movies are the best. We can't see through anything here, a job well-done. And the movie also expertly deals with the themes of the past, urban & rural cities, and loyalty. And of course, the principal photography are what's first and foremost when it comes to what's most memorable with this.Highly recommended!

senditon85 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.

punishmentpark 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.

Dave from Ottawa 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.