Having witnessed his junkie father killed Russell Stevens grows up to become a policeman and make a difference. When he is offered an undercover job by Gerald Carver he accepts and begins to build a relationship with David Jason in order to get to the main dealers. However as he is forced to deal drugs and kill to keep his cover he finds the lines between cop and criminal being lost – is he a cop pretending to be a dealer or a dealer pretending to be a cop?
Larry (as he was then) Fishburne's first lead role was a typically dark vehicle. The story is the usual one of cop losing himself when undercover, however it manages to be more than that for most of the time. Co-written by Tolkin, who wrote The Player, this naturally has a nice cynical edge to it when it looks at the US's hypocritical approach to drug control and the political links between the street hustlers and the political high rollers who court respectability. The story does eventually settle into a traditional setting but even then it works well as a thriller.
The multi-talented Bill Duke directs well with a gritty feel and a few nice touches. However several things are a bit iffy. For most of the film Fishburne's narration/voice over is a bit like a cross between Apocalypse Now and Blade Runner – it comes across as a little too dark and heavy and also explains things like we can't figure it out ourselves. However once you get into the film it's not as big a deal. My main problem lies with the characters.
Fishburne is excellent, a real model of underlying anger and violence, Goldblum is good but perhaps a little OTT on the yuppie/violence thing, but there's good support from Smith and Spin City's beautiful (and often underused – but not here) Victoria Dillard. However the two main white characters (Goldblum and Smith) are both smeared with racist insinuations – Smith appears to insult his black officers and doesn't care about the junkies, while Goldblum is fascinated about all things black and talks about them as wild beautiful beasts and loves having sex with "black'. These things aren't a major problem, but with basically only two white characters in it, it's a little worrying that both are given that edge.
However these are minor complaints that get lost with a good thriller. Fishburne excels and Duke delivers a story that is a good thriller but also has a jaded, subversive edge.
若山富三郎,加藤刚,浜木绵子,山形勋,水岛道太郎,中谷一郎,富川晶宏,浜村纯,草野大悟,名和宏,伊达三郎,山谷初男,堀北幸夫,岩田正,志贺胜,安部彻
周润发,邓光荣,谢贤,徐少强,甄妮,夏文汐,陈欣健
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斯科特·阿金斯,弗兰克·格里罗,德蒙特·莫罗尼,杰米·金,Erica Peeples,凯文·盖奇,梅奇·费法,阿莫里·诺拉斯科,陈钰芸,Donald Cerrone,Mary Christina Brown,保罗·斯隆,Jessica Medina,Justin Furstenfeld,Robert Laenen,Bryan McGowan,Tyler Wombles,Pino Martinez,Anthony C Garcia,Ibrahimshahoot
艾丽·范宁,内森·连恩,约翰·特托罗,查理·罗,弗朗西斯·德·拉·图瓦,理查德·E·格兰特,朱莉娅·维斯托斯卡亚,雪莉·亨德森,约翰尼·科瓦内,艾伦·考克斯,杰森·哈里斯
布鲁斯·威利斯,凯文·狄龙,奥利弗·特雷韦纳,J.M. Wilkerson,Adam Huel Potter