Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Peter Sanderson is a chess grandmaster whose freedom gets threatened after a murderer of females shows up in the city they all live in. Filmmakers bring all the doubts throughout the story to let spectator curious about who the lunatic may be, which is very classic in the called "whodunit" thrillers. It feels IMPOSSIBLE not to notice how much like 2004's "Saw" this movie does look; in my opinion, it's pretty clear that James Wan has had at least an inspiration in "Knight Moves". Of course "Saw" is a lot more elaborated and well produced than this, but I won't deny this film has brought a nice idea to the genre. Unfortunetaly, there is, in fact, a little of bad acting in this 90's hidden project; nobody seems to be acting naturally in the character they've been given. Maybe a better director or casting director would have made something better about it. "Knight Moves" has, eventually, a good ending that makes you feel a little happy-- mainly because Sanderson doesn't turn out to be the monster that policemen were saying--, so I can state it's a regular thriller, deserved to be seen. Just don't get mad with the occasional bad acting and the poor photography directing and you'll probably have a good time.

"Knight Moves" is one of the better thrillers of the early 1990s. It has an attention-grabbing opening, it's atmospherically directed, well-plotted (with at least one admirably effective red herring - I was fairly certain about who the killer would be, but I was wrong), it avoids gratuitous gore, and the music score (by Anne Dudley) is terrific. The film almost plays like a precursor to "Seven" and the other "serial killer teasing the police with riddles" thrillers that followed. My only major reservation: Christopher Lambert is not entirely convincing as an international chess grandmaster, which is probably the reason the film does not really focus as much on chess itself as it may appear to at first. **1/2 out of 4.

**SPOILERS** It's not as if American Chess Grandmaster Peter Sanderson, Christopher Lambert, didn't have enough headaches in trying to defeat his arch-rival fellow Chess Grandmaster Lutz, Alex Diakun, in the "Tournament of Champions" in the out of the way town of Roxbridge in Washington State. He also gets himself involved in a string of grizzly murders that soon starts to effect his concentration. This leads Senderson to make a number of misplays and slip ups that almost cost him the final, or rubber, match with Lutz.It's very obvious that the person committing these killings has something very personal against Sanderson besides him being #1 in the world of American, as well as world, chess. Murdering as well as using young and beautiful women as chess pieces in this deadly and bizarre game of chess he's playing has his opponent Chess Grandmaster Sanderson become the #1 suspect in the murders that this lunatic is committing! That's the absurd an illogical conclusion that the towns two top "Keystone Kops", who very probably got their police badges out of a Crackerjacks box, Capt. Frank Sedman & Det. Andy Wagner, Tom Slerritt & Daniel Baldwin, come up with! Even though Sanderson as an alibi, in most cases Sedman & Wagner themselves, for where he was when the murders were committed!Crime suspense thrillers just don't get any better then "Knight Moves" in just how in your face and brazen it is in manipulating its audience. We know right from the very start that Sanderson is innocent of the crimes that he's charged with yet were, as well as Sanderson, boxed into a corner where it's almost impossible, even if we were on a jury, to be sure beyond a reasonable doubt that he didn't commit them! In that Sanderson comes across so guilty looking, as well as acting, that you suspect that he somehow committed the murders not psychically but through some kind of, by being in two places at the same time, telepathic or OBE, out of the body, experience!***SPOILER*** The killer leaves clues at the scenes of his crimes to what the real reasons-besides playing chess-for his murderous rampage is all abut that the smart as a whip, in being a Chess Grandmaster, Sanderson should have easily picked up. It's when all the pieces, or moves, finally fall into place it's not "smartly pants" Sanderson who finally figures who who this shadowy killer really is but it's the local police psychiatrist Kathy Sheppard, Dane Lane, who beats him to it! That leads to the grand final in the film as Sanderson and his opponent, the psycho killer, have it out with Sanderson's 10 year-old daughter Erica, Katharine Isabella, as the grand prize. In her being ritually murder with all her blood drained out, like all his other victims, by the psycho killer or rescued by her now wiser and smarter dad, in him finally getting it to who the killer is, Peter Sanderson!

The film had some suspenseful moments (the finale most of all), but I found the script, acting and direction rather mediocre. Even normally good actors like Tom Skerritt and Diane Lane give awkward performances, and Christopher Lambert's overwrought line delivery is often hilarious.**POSSIBLE SPOILER** The movie even pulls out the ultimate cliche: thunder and lightning during the critical climax and a killer with a "mommy" complex. Give me a break!. A for trying, C for the results.