One False Move
Tags: neo noir, realism, murder, violence, atmospheric, suspenseful

Plot synopsis:
Three criminals, Ray, Pluto and Fantasia (Ray's girlfriend), commit six brutal murders over the course of one night in Los Angeles as they seek a cache of money and cocaine. The trio leave for Houston to sell the cocaine to a friend of Pluto's.
The LAPD Detectives Cole and McFeely are investigating the case. After getting a few leads, they discover that the three are possibly headed for Star City, Arkansas. The LAPD contacts the Star City police chief, Dale "Hurricane" Dixon, who is excited about the case, as it gives him an opportunity to do "some real police work". He is well-known throughout the small county, chatting with locals while on patrol. The detectives fly to Star City and meet Dixon. He attempts to ingratiate himself with the detectives, whom he reveres, while they pretend to respect him.
After stopping at a convenience store, a state trooper pulls over and attempts to arrest Ray and Pluto but Fantasia kills him as she is asked to get out of the car. Word of the trooper's murder gets to the detectives in Star City, and the trio review surveillance photos of Ray and Fantasia in the store confirming their identity. Dixon informs the detectives that Fantasia is Lila Walker and she grew up in Star City. He recalls she was a troubled youth who left for Hollywood with dreams of an acting career.
The detectives sense Dixon may know Fantasia better than he is letting on after they stop by her mother's house. They question Fantasia's mother and brother Ronnie about Fantasia's whereabouts and if she had contacted them recently. They also meet a young boy who is revealed to be Lila's young son. The detectives suspect that Lila will be coming home to see him.
Ray, Fantasia and Pluto arrive in Houston to sell the drugs as planned. Fantasia takes a bus to Star City. Angry that their buyers are reneging on the previously agreed upon price for the cocaine, Pluto and Ray kill them and flee. They drive to Star City to meet up with Fantasia and plan their next move.
When Fantasia arrives in Star City, she hides at a rural house. Dixon confronts her, and it is revealed that the boy is Dixon and Lila's son, conceived during an affair years earlier. After tense conversation, they make a deal. She will lure Ray and Pluto to ensure their arrest and in exchange, Dixon will help her leave town.
Pluto and Ray arrive at the house and are immediately confronted by an armed Dixon. Pluto stabs Dixon in the stomach and Dixon shoots Pluto. Ray draws his gun and runs outside while shooting at Dixon. The two fire at each other, but Fantasia stops Dixon from killing Ray, only to have Ray errantly shoot her in the head. Shot in the chest, Dixon steadies himself and shoots Ray, killing him. Pluto walks outside and falls dead in the grass. Dixon calls for help with his police radio, and the LAPD detectives arrive, amazed at what Dixon has accomplished. The boy walks over and talks to Dixon as he lies bleeding, and he asks the boy to tell him about himself.

Review: Well, he drew his gun seven years ago and it has now come back to haunt him and put him in a position that could get him killed.Billy Bob Thornton (A Simple Plan, Sling Blade, Astronaut Farmer), Arkansas born himself, co-wrote and starred in this film and really pulls off the psycho robber with such perfection that I really cannot understand how a supposedly intelligent guy like "Pluto" (Michael Beach - Short Cuts, "Third Watch," "ER") could hook up with him, especially since they spent two years in jail after the last job.
In Los Angeles, after a violent drug rip-off, the Los Angeles Police Department detectives find the identity of the trio – the sadistic I.Q. of 150 and college graduate Lenny "Pluto" Franklyn (Michael Beach); his not so bright buddy in San Quentin Ray Malcolm (Billy Bob Thornton); and his girlfriend Fantasia (Cynda Williams).
Their further investigation indicates that the criminals are fleeing to Star City, Arkanas, and LAPD detective Dud Cole (Jim Metzler) and his partner John McFeely (Earl Billings) contact the local Chief of Police Dale 'Hurricane' Dixon (Bill Paxton) and they head to the little town.
Cynda Williams, in her second film, is awesome but Bill Paxton "steals" the film in the role of a bragger hillbilly and chief of police that sees the chance of his life of arresting real criminals but meets his past instead.
It marked the feature-film debut of American director Carl Franklin who takes a run-of-the-mill cops and robbers yarn and wisely places the emphasis on character.
Williams, Thornton (who also co-wrote the script) and Beach are excellent as the three gangsters while Bill Paxton is also excellent as Hurricane the Star City cop entrusted with the task of helping the LA police track the gang down.
Billy Bob Thornton, however, has since become an international star appearing in such modern classics as A SIMPLE PLAN (1999) and the Coen Brothers' sublime black and white noir film THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE (2001)..
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.
After a drug buy goes bad, Ray(Thornton)and Pluto(Michael Beach)with pretty Fantasia(Cynda Williams)in tow head from California to Star City, Arkansas.
He gets in over his head tangling with on-the-lam, murderous drug dealing thugs escaping from Los Angeles and heading to his small, rural town of Star City, Arkansas, where they plan to hide out at friend's house.
Billy Bob Thornton's screenplay is superb, as is his acting (and that of his co-stars including Michael Beech and Bill Paxton), which helps us identify, if not quite like the character 'Ray'.
The haunting climax aided by a well used blues soundtrack is also worthy of specific recognition, but in short this movie will not disappoint any audience appreciating an interesting story.Modelled on a High Noon good guys Vs bad guys like destiny, narrative also has little observations on racism and the class divide between big city America and small town Americana.
The cast are uniformly strong, with the stand outs Williams, Paxton and Thornton reaching down deep to give their respective characters some stunning grittiness, doling out sadness, misguidedness and rage with a believability that's as impressive as it is riveting to watch.Overall rating: 9 out of 10..
Directed by Carl Franklin and written by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson, 'One False Move' is a thriller starring Cynda Williams, Billy Bob Thornton, Bill Paxton, Michael Beach,etc.
I have to individually mention Bill Paxton and Cynda Williams for showing a lot of range by playing character, the perceptions for whom change radically in the viewer's mind with the revealing of new facts about their past.I have already mentioned that the script is layered, but even then this could have become a standard crime-thriller with no depth.
Heading for Star City, Arkansas, the three are oblivious to the fact that the law, both local and of L.A., is lying in wait for them.One time actor Carl Franklin has good standing as a director in neo-noir circles, his Devil in a Blue Dress (1995) and Out of Time (2003) had the benefit of starring Denzel Washington, with the former often thought of as an undervalued treasure.
These be a mix of classic losers, psychotics, redemption seekers and a naive dreamer, and there's a link from the past that's going to impact devastatingly on the present.Modelled on a High Noon good guys Vs bad guys like destiny, narrative also has little observations on racism and the class divide between big city America and small town Americana.
The cast are uniformly strong, with the stand outs Williams, Paxton and Thornton reaching down deep to give their respective characters some stunning grittiness, doling out sadness, misguidedness and rage with a believability that's as impressive as it is riveting to watch.One of the best crime pictures of the 90s and an essential viewing for anyone interested in pure neo-noir.
The biggest joy of this movie is, unsurprisingly, getting to know Bill Paxton's Dale "The Hurricane" Dixon, the chief of police of a small Arkansas town that three vicious criminals seem to be heading toward like a particularly nasty storm front, leaving a trail of corpses in their wake.
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.
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..
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 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.
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.
Yes I will openly admit to bias here, but I can't help thinking that if Billy Bob Thornton would've been the director as well as one of the writers and a principle actor, this film would've been much better.
I know how that sounds, but trust me, see this movie.This was done before Billy Bob Thornton had gained wide recognition (he was co-writer) and it was only a hint of things to come.
They are more sophisticated investigators but Hurricane knows the small town of Star City and the players very well, and in one case too well.This was the first film directed by Carl Franklin and was co-written by Billy Bob Thornton and they both did a great job.
It is really one of the best films about crime, punishment, race and class in the recent film history and the careers of everybody involved, Paxton, Thornton, Franklin, Michael Beach, and Cynda Williams got a well-deserved boost from this one..
Paxton was absolutely perfect for his role, as was Thornton.I could have done without some of the more violent scenes, but I never thought that they were gratuitous or forced.Highly recommended for film noir fans, but definitely not for the kids..
I have to mention Michael Beach who really seems to be cold blooded psycho and good performance by Billy Bob Thornton (who is also the writer of the movie).I give it 7/10..
ONE FALSE MOVE (1992) **** Bill Paxton, Cynda Williams, Billy Bob Thornton, Michael Beach, Earl Billings, Jem Metzler, Natalie Canerday.
Carl Franklin made his directorial debut with this swiftly paced and excellently executed tale of a crime spree from Los Angeles to a small Arkansas town with intriguing characters of cops and criminals in this above-average road film.
This was the first movie that I ever saw Billy Bob Thornton in and only the third that I had seen Bill Paxton in.
If you want a tough and realistic thriller watch this one.Full of  bloody action sequences(VERY graphic ones indeed) and a terrific bad guy played by Thornton,this movie deliver the goods.Exciting and very realistic.Very.After watching this movie I was happy,finally a great film noir without ANY of the typical Hollywood flaws.There`s not a better film noir than this.If you like this one I recommend "Devil In a Blue dress"(also Franklin),Red Rock West and The Last Seduction(both directed by John Dahl).By the way,the best film noir ever is "L.A Confidential".Okey,so One False Move is SECOND then.Enjoy!Rating  8/10.
Lila, her boyfriend Ray (Billy Bob Thornton), and Pluto (Michael Beach) decide to steal a store of drugs and cash, leaving 6 dead bodies in their wake.
However, there is a common thread that runs between Lila and Dixon as the plot runs much deeper than we initially believe.Bill Paxton is solid in his portrayal of the small town police chief, a good ol' boy with a chance to have a real case to work on in a town where nothing beyond the crimes of domestic disturbances or breaking the speed limit occur.
Ray Malcolm (Billy Bob Thornton), his girlfriend Fantasia (Cynda Williams), and psychopathic killer Pluto Franklyn (Michael Beach) kill a drug family and steal their money and drugs.
The trio is heading to Houston to sell the drugs before going to Star City for family.Billy Bob Thornton is warming up in this 1992 movie.
Directed by Carl Franklin from a script by Billy Bob Thornton, and starring Thornton, Bill Paxton, Cynda Williams, and Michael Beach, it begins with bloody bodies on the floor and ends with bloody bodies on the ground.
I am therefore condemning director Carl Franklin to an absurdist nightmare in which he dreams of getting scripts in the mail in which the dialogue for all characters consists of just that one word in its various grammatical forms, repeated for one hundred and twenty pages.Paxton plays a small town sheriff in awe of the cops from the big city who is nonetheless intent on proving his manhood.
Going there are sleazy snorting Billy Bob Thornton (as Ray Malcolm), sexy girlfriend Cynda Williams (as Lila "Fantasia" Walker), and smartly psycho Michael Beach (Pluto).
They augmented it by having Mr. Paxton characterize the film's unraveling hero, revealing beneath the elimination of race as a barrier to love.********* One False Move (5/8/92) Carl Franklin ~ Bill Paxton, Cynda Williams, Billy Bob Thornton, Michael Beach.
Several years before he struck gold with "Sling Blade", Billy Bob co-wrote and starred in this neat little thriller.A drug heist that results in a mass execution puts Thornton, iceman Michael Beach, and Thornton's girlfriend Cynda Williams on the run.
Bill Paxton is fine as well, as the local Sheriff who has a few secrets of his own.It's very rare to find a film like "One False Move".
Astounding performances were given by the dismal villains (Billy Bob Thornton, Michael Beach, and Cynda Williams) and the high spirited sheriff (Bill Paxton).
This routine drama benefits from having some interesting characters, particularly Paxton as a small town police chief who dreams of joining the LA force and Thornton, who co-wrote the screenplay, as the leader of the criminals on the run.
Her boyfriend, "Ray Malcolm" (Billy Bob Thornton) has just gotten out of prison and along with another ex-convict named "Lenny 'Pluto' Franklin" (Michael Beach) are involved in drugs and murder.
Both Billy Bob Thornton and Cynda Williams performed in an excellent manner and in my opinion carried this film.
It shows us what we first take as stereotypes, then throws them back at us: clean-cut, good-looking, intelligent (black) Pluto (Michael Beach) and beady-eyed, slovenly, foul-mouthed, slack-jawed trailer-trash (white) Ray Malcolm (Billy Bob Thornton) are partnered with beautiful black call girl Phantasia (Cynda Williams) in a rip-off of some Hollywood coke dealers.
And, as it also turns out, Phantasia isn't Pluto's girlfriend, as would seem logical, but she's with Malcolm, who looks and acts like he should be on a recruiting poster for the Ku Klux Klan--and who, for all his outward bluster, tough talk and murderous appearance, is actually the weaker of the two men by far, and almost totally under the thumb of the icy, cold-blooded Pluto, of whom he appears (with good reason) to be terrified.The L.A. police eventually discover the trio's identities, and their investigation leads them to believe that the killers are headed for an Arkansas backwater called Star City, so they send two homicide detectives there to help the local sheriff apprehend them.
Even the Star City sheriff, a young, garrulous "bubba" (Bill Paxton, in a first-rate job) excited by the prospect of doing some "real" police work with some "real" big-city cops, turns out to have more of an interest in this case than just a purely law enforcement one.This is a crackerjack movie, with no big stars but chock full of good, solid character actors, an inventive, well written script (by Thornton) and direction by Carl Franklin that brings to mind the best of Don Siegel, Phil Karlson, Joseph H.
Three killers -- Billy Bob Thornton or whatever his three names are, Williams, and Beach -- drive from LA to Star City, Arkansas, where two LA detectives (Metzler and Billings) and a local chief of police (Paxton) await them.
The movie's carefully created atmosphere, its precise pacing and its visual style are all impeccable and enhance its overall quality enormously."One False Move" is a tense thriller which makes a powerful initial impact as it depicts very graphically the grotesque savagery of a series of murders before it develops into an intriguing tale about a group of people whose lives are destined to be brought together in an unavoidable and deadly confrontation.Two ex-prison buddies called Ray (Billy Bob Thornton) and Pluto (Michael Beach) and their accomplice Fantasia (Cynda Williams) steal a substantial quantity of cocaine and money from an L.A. drug dealer and then travel to Houston to sell the cocaine to one of Pluto's contacts.
The detectives go to Star City and discuss their plans with the local sheriff Dale "Hurricane" Dixon (Bill Paxton) who is very impressed by the big city cops and is tremendously excited to be working with them.Fantasia leaves Houston by bus to see her five year old son who's being cared for by her mother in Star City and Ray and Pluto stay to complete their drug deal.
The two detectives on the other hand are seasoned and cynical city cops who exploit Dixon's good natured generosity and at the same time regard him as naive and inferior.The use of low angle shots and close-ups in the violent scenes early on in the movie are particularly effective in emphasising the amount of fear and tension involved and similarly, in some later sequences, there are numerous moments of real suspense which are very convincing.The screenplay by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson is excellent, the acting is of a consistently high standard and despite its various plot twists, a palpable sense of inevitability remains strong throughout.
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).
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.
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.
Bill Paxton stars as Dale Dixon a police chief in Star City, Arkansas who is with the help of two Los Angeles detectives (Jim Metzler and Earl Billings) are on a case of six murders over a drug deal gone wrong, and later it is found out that there are three suspects in the case a man nicknamed "Pluto" (Michael Beach), his friend Ray (Billy Bob Thornton), and with them is a girl named Lila (Cynda Williams) who is nicknamed "Fantasia" by Ray. Then they are all caught but they don't go to jail for reasons that I won't mention because they are too crucial to the story of this film.
A pair of brutal criminals named Ray Malcolm and Pluto (Billy Bob Thornton and Michael Beach) rob an LA drug dealer and leave a pile of bodies in their wake.
Most interesting is the contrast between Billy Bob Thornton's Ray and Michael Beach's Pluto.
If you want to watch a good movie, or just want to see Billy Bob Thornton with a douchebag ponytail, give it a look..