Excellent, well paced character driven thriller.(spoilers)

I'm surprised more people aren't talking about this movie. This is an A+ movie. Every scene propels the story, the characters' motivations, and something unexpected always gets thrown into the mix. There is really no way to predict how the story will unfold, who will do what, or who will make it out alive or get caught.

The character of Pluto, played by Michael Beach, is one of the most intelligently written characters I've ever seen on film. He is very cunning and calculating. He knows what to do and is cool under pressure. Weapon of choice is a knife. If he gets in a bide, he stabs you. Billy Bob's character, Ray, on the other hand, is a slobbery, greedy, slighty thick skulled, doping criminal. He is quick to judge and quick to react, however half-witted he sometimes is.

The other interesting aspect of the movie is that each set of character interaction that run parallel through the movie, the Paxton "Hurricane" cop and the woman Fantasia, the LA cops, and the criminal men, are all black and white race relationships. And the truly interesting part of it is that it doesn't matter that they are black or white. The movie doesn't use the cliche of race as a tool to ride out its story, it only uses race as a means to deconstruct certain aspects of the story.

Anyone wanting to learn how to write characters and/or a screenplay, should watch this movie. Study it, the pacing, the dialogue, the lighting, the directing, what is said and not said, what is implied. The ambiguity of the ending. There is so much richness in this movie, you'll want to see it a few times. I've seen it 5 times now. I watch it about once a year.

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