Directed by Carl Franklin from a script by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson which is the strongest of anything I've seen recently. There's a kind of inexorability to how things go while leaving room for enough random events to avoid inescapability; it's a character study masquerading as a thriller. Something of a Cynda Williams jag from Mo' Better Blues and she's marginally less lethal here. She co-stars with Thornton, somewhat annoying Arkansas police chief "Hurricane" Bill Paxton and an effective but underused Michael Beach. Jim Metzler and Earl Bingings play the relevant part of the LAPD.
The plot is of the era: an L.A. drug larceny proves lethal to those holding. The odd sock perps hit the track to Star City, Arkansas via Texas. They mostly hold up their end of the plot while Paxton smothers us in puppy-dog enthusiasm. The conclusion is annoyingly neat.
Roger Ebert: four stars. A Critic's Pick by Janet Maslin. The opening scenes evoke classic Californian cold-blooded mass murder (think Manson). As lastliberal observes at IMDB, why genius Beach puts up with clown Thornton for so long is a deep gaol-cell mystery.
