Customer Reviews

Deep Cover: Music From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Unlike many other films that have taken the undercover cop story and pursued it in a typical fashion, "Deep Cover" takes a tense, intimate approach. Director Bill Duke creates a quiet masterpiece casting Laurence Fishburne as a by-the-book cop assigned to infiltrate a major cocaine empire in Los Angeles. His connection inside is Jeff Goldblum (in probably his best performance ever), a supposed clean-shaven Jewish lawyer who secretly longs for the thrill of a gangster's life while trying to maintain a family at home. Duke does not glorify these drug dealers as Scarface-type millionaires who revel in money & mansions but rather paints them as quiet, suspicious businessmen who hold no true alliances to anyone while nesting in pool halls & boxing gyms. There is never a moment where any of these characters are seeking fame & fortune. Instead, they are looking for recognition of their power over both their friends & foes.

Fishburne soon finds himself sucked into the dealer's life against his will, doing whatever he can to infiltrate the organization despite how far "deep" he's involved in it (as opposed to the cliche that the cop decides he likes being a drug dealer). Meanwhile, Jeff Goldblum also enters the chaos that's unraveling, learning to embrace the thug within him that was waiting to emerge. The film has the unmistakable look & sound of the early 90's (a good time in film & music if you ask me), but it has aged well due to sharp cinematography and a fine soundtrack. The film has a slightly distracting sub-plot involving Fishburne and a Christian cop played by Clarence Williams III, but Williams pulls it off with such conviction that you don't mind. There is also a great performance by character actor (and Spike Lee regular) Roger Guenever Smith as a switchy, mid-level dealer. Possibly one of the most overlooked "cop" films of the 90's, and a must-have for fans of Laurene Fishburne or Jeff Goldblum.

I, like so many other people who grew up in the time I did, was first attracted to this film solely through the title song by Dr. Dre on the soundtrack to the film. It was ridiculous how much I heard that song get played all over the radio and the hype it surrounded the movie with during that spring of 1992. In fact, it, in many ways, has outlasted the film itself in terms of pop culture's memory. And that is actually a shame.

This a superior thriller, taking the undercover cop story and crafting a tension-drenched and surprisingly subtle movie. And though it begins to lose its bottom by the end and becomes a little contrived, for the first three quarters of the movie it is expertise and a whole lot more unpredictable than most films of its genre. Veteran actor Laurence Fishburne stars, in, surprisingly, his first lead role, as an L.A. cop who is assigned to go undercover and infiltrate a major cocaine empire in Los Angeles. It is a job he reluctantly takes; as a child he witnessed his junkie father killed while pulling a stickup on Christmas Eve. The flashback of this is shown as the opening scene and is one of the most disturbing in the film, as the young child, who had just listened to his father ask him what he wanted for Christmas, watches the whole bloody incident in horror and pain from the parked car. This plays heavily on his conscience and his psychic well-being as the film goes on. He goes everywhere from the seedy streets of the inner-cities and ghettos as a cocaine dealer and manages to get all the way to the highest ranks of the organization. He does this by working his way into the circle of a mid-level drug distributor. A supposedly clean-shaven man who owns a house, has a beautiful wife, and an eight-year-old daughter whom he practices the multiplication tables with in the morning. This key character is played with nervous ingenuity by Jeff Goldblum, in one of his most impressive performances, and is the symbol of the disturbing depths that a man's greed can go to.

All of this, while extremely strong assets, are more or less pretty routine in films such as these. Director Bill Duke, however, manages to take it a step further and elevates this film with style and class. He has Fishburne narrate the story and allows the langage to be poetic and colorful, something that derives from classic 1940s film noir. My favorite line in the narration is on Fishburne's first day on the streets as a dealer when the voice-over says "The great thing about life on the streets is you know how it's gonna be. It's always the same. It's always getting worse." The strongest and most potent scenes in the film are the ones dealing directly with Fishburne's struggles with the moral decisions he must make. The "deeper" involved he gets in the criminal life, the more he begins to realize the cold and inhuman manner with which the government and authorities have been cast. It's not that he decides he likes being a drug dealer, it's actually the exact opposite. He becomes more and more determined to infiltrate the organization, by any means necessary, no matter how violent and chaotic it gets. As I said, the film does begin to lose its bottom by the end, as the plot becomes slightly overblown, however, I won't go into details as it would spoil some surprises. And overall the courage and conviction of the performances causes you to forget the lackluster final quarter. Roger Ebert said that this was "a drama disguised as a thriller" and I will have to agree with that statement. It is much more dependent on characters than on action scenes, and that is what makes it so much better and more intelligent that most of its genre. Everywhere in this film there is the unmistakeable look and feel of the early '90s, whether it's in the great soundtrack, the sharp cinematography, the fast-paced editing and camera movements, or the screen sweeps that segue from scene to scene. It was a good time in movies and music, if you ask me, but this film has aged much better than its closest companion 'New Jack City' has. Possibly one of the most overlooked cop films of the '90s.

The five star reviews pretty much say it all about this movie however for me the last line of the film along the lines of: "I could take the money which would be dishonest, or give it back to the government and be a fool, or just do nothing at all - this is the question we all must face at one time or another" extremely appropriate to the times [and probably for any time] and very moving. Overall this movie has tremendous impact and was very well written/directed/produced and last but not least the acting was generally superb throughout!

This is the only movie that I rented on reccomandation from video-store clerk that proved worth watching.

Excellent cast, believable characters and dialogue, story with suspense and twists, well directed action and to top it all of -a moral story.

Plot in a sentence: honest black cop goes undercover and finds himself too deep...

This is no easy viewing, especially when you watch it by yourself for the first time, but it's quite rewarding in the end.

Favourite line: "All this time I thought I was a cop pretending to be a drugdealer. I am nothing but a drugdealer pretending to be a cop."

This is a truly excellent movie. Everything is good - the script, the plot, the cinematography, but above all the acting. How Larry Fishburne did not get an Oscar for his performance is beyond me. He has a really powerful screen prescence, his narration is pitched perfectly, but most impressive is the way his character's personality changes and develops throughout the film, something that takes really good acting and control to achieve. All of the other actors do well also, but none of them are as good as Fishburne. The action is gripping but controlled but it is the powerful plot which holds the entire film together. The film starts as a fairly standard "cops movie" but you realise about half way through that it's nothing of the sort. Forget about "Traffic" this is one of the most powerful attacks on the (so-called) "War on Drugs" that you are ever likely to see. The movie also raises all sorts of deep questions, about loyalty, principles, and how to maintain your integrity in a deeply corrupt system. Go and see it now!

Although he was featured as the moral father in the landmark film "Boyz n the Hood" the year before and had been acting for ten years, "Deep Cover" was the film that made me sit up and take notice of Laurence Fishburne, then stand up and applaud. "Deep Cover" was directed by Bill Duke and he fashions a film that allows Mr. Fishburne a tour de force performance.

Like a lot of people, I like good Cops and Gangster movies. But I would argue that films like "The Godfather" and the more recent "The Departed" are successful in ways that "Scarface" is not because we get to see the humanity in the characters. It's not interesting to watch a bad guy who is nothing but bad through and through in every second of the film. Good guys aren't interesting in a film unless they're a little wrinkled. Michael Corleone is interesting in the Godfather films because he WANTS to be a good father, husband and man, but he keeps getting dragged into criminal situations that he would avoid if he could. By contrast, in Scarface Al Pacino portrays a sociopath and I quickly grew tired of his "I'm the baddest bad guy there is" act.

"Deep Cover" is a movie that has layers and Laurence portrays these many layers in an acting performance that is one of the best I have ever seen. His character grew up in the streets. He watched his father killed and is determined to grow up and stay on the straight and narrow. He becomes a policeman. Because of his intelligence and background he is recruited to go undercover to infiltrate a drug ring. He is hesitant, but Charles Martin Smith's DEA Agent character talks him into it. Smith has had a great career playing nerdy government types, and you can see that HE can't go infiltrate this drug ring, so Laurence seems a good choice.

Under cover Fishburne descends by layers, either becoming or simply pretending to become exactly the kind of man he has tried to avoid his entire life. Jeff Goldblum is flip and charming in a sociopath lawyer-turned-drug dealer kind of way - reminiscent of Sean Penn in Carlito's Way. Clarence Williams III is absolutely terrific in his few scenes as the good street cop who doesn't know that Fishburne is actually a cop too, and tries to steer him away from the trouble that he seems headed for.

What really makes Deep Cover burn is the performance of Laurence Fishburne. He is so convincingly conflicted about putting on the act of becoming a drug dealer. Will he be put into a position to commit serious crimes? To kill? After he has spent such a long time undercover becoming a Prince of the street, what will he do when he is offered the chance to move up to the big time in the drug ring? The climactic scene of "Deep Cover" contains one of the most intense acting performances I have ever seen. It would be worth watching this film only for that scene - but it's a good ride getting there. Enjoy.

The title song by Dre. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg is perhaps one of the best rap songs ever created. The lyrics are excellent and the beats are tight. While, Down With My Nigga and I See Ya Jay are commendable tracks, the rest of the CD is WEAK. The songs are annoying and just plain bad. But the song Deep Cover keeps this a 4 star CD because it is so awesome. Get this CD for the title track and Down With My Nigga but that's it.

I haven't seen this movie for quite a few years, but I became a huge fan of Laurence Fishburne because of it. I remembered loving the dialogue of the film and the intrinsic moral struggles of Fishburne's character. I had also forgotten that Michael Tolkin (THE PLAYER, AMONG THE DEAD--a novel, and CHANGING LANES) wrote the screenplay. All until I purchased it on DVD last week and watched it Friday evening. Man, that's a lot to forget. . . .

Fishburne is simply spectacular in a quietly disturbing and understated way. His eyes tell much of the story. One of the reviewers called him "broding," and this is a good description. His character doesn't want the assignment but flourishes in it. Doing a bad thing well has its own rewards and punishments. Goldblum--hardly one's first thought at Oscar time each year--is excellent as Fishburne's "partner" in crime. Everybody else is, at the very least, very good: Fishburne's superior officer, his lady friend, the drug dealers, the cop/preacher chasing Fishburne.

Tolkin does an admirable job of mixing the music of the movie, fairly heavy hip hop (at least for my taste) with its dialogue. Fishburne's lines as narrator, at times, are very rhythmic and poetic, blending with the undercurrent of music. He is also fairly profound at moments, going well beyond his profession (whether as cop or drug dealer) to be a father figure to the little boy who lived across the hall. The only argument one could really make is that Tolkin's dialogue is a bit too "preachy" at times and possibly a bit too profound in some pressure-packed moments--would these thugs come up with these lines in these situations? It doesn't matter to me. I'll give Tolkin bonus points for writing a clever, smart, quick screenplay, complete with the moral ambiguities he seems to love and the less-than-happily-ever-after ending we all should have expected from him.

Bottom line: this is one of the best crime/drug movies I can think of, and Fishburne's performance (really his break-out one) is well worth a rental, at the very least. It is "out of the box" enough and performed so well as to be highly recommended.

Strong performances by Laurence Fishburne and Jeff Goldblum dominate this story of a cop who goes undercover as a drug dealer, in order to "Do some good," in "Deep Cover," directed by Bill Duke. When he is ten years old, Russell Stevens Jr. witnesses the killing of his drug addicted father, who is shot as he attempts to rob a liquor store, while his son waits in the car. Twenty years later, Russell (Fishburne) is a cop, making good on the promise he made to himself the day he watched his father die; he wasn't going to end up like that. And he was going to make a difference. When Gerald Carver (Charles Martin Smith), an agent with the DEA, approaches him with the offer of an assignment to go under cover as a drug dealer, to help them dismantle the South American pipeline supplying most of the West Coast, and ultimately bring those individuals responsible to justice, Russell accepts; but only after coming to terms with his initial misgivings about taking on such a role. He'll be in so deep, he'll actually have to become another person; he'll be living the life full time, and it may take a year or more to accomplish what they set out to do. He takes the name John Hull, and goes in. This is a decent action film with a pretty good story, but there isn't much here that hasn't been done before; what sets this one apart from many others like it, however, are the two stars. Fishburne, especially (still billed here as "Larry"), takes a fairly routine character and gives him substance. He has such a commanding screen presence that it makes everything that goes down seem credible; he seemingly has the innate ability to know his character from the inside out, and what a difference that can make, especially to a movie like this. Goldblum, as well, takes his character of attorney David Jason to the limit. He lends a smarmy edginess to him, as he gradually takes his initial cool resolve to the brink of reason, then on past to the point of no return. Smith is not nearly as effective as the Princeton educated agent with clean hands, who drives Russell to depths from which he may never return, but Fishburne is such a good actor that it lifts Smith's performance to a higher level, too. Clarence Williams III, as Taft, the cop with the penchant for scripture, is believable enough, but there is something disquieting about watching him; he never blinks, which can be distracting at times. The supporting cast includes Victoria Dillard (Betty), Sydney Lassick (Gopher), Gregory Sierra (Felix), Roger Guenveur Smith (Eddie), Rene Assa (Guzman), and Arthur Mendoza (Gallegos). Duke gives a brisk pace to the film, and maintains it throughout, but keeps it all rather routine and unimaginative. "Deep Cover" then, is a reasonably satisfying movie, due mainly to the aforementioned performances, which really make it seem more substantial than it is.

The opening scene of this film is probably the best, and sets up nicely the tone of the remainder of the film. It is Christmas time and snowing heavily as a father drives his son to the liquor store, snorts some coke, and then asks the boy what he wants for Christmas. He then robs a liquour store at gunpoint, and is shot in the back in front of his son Russell and next to a fake Santa. The scene captures a nightmare from a child's perspective, that will haunt and inform him until the end. It is a nice example of how an effective opening scene can simultaneously set a tone, develop sympathy for a main character, and (naively and simplistically but memorably) explain a contradictory set of motivations that will drive him throughout the film. He doesn't want to be like his father, so he will want to be straight. But he knows his father loved him, so he won't be quick to judge someone like his father; and he will be looking for a father figure throughout the film. The film is really not so much about drugs as about parenting and the relation of the child to the missing parent.

He finds a surrogate father, at first, in his racist boss at the DEA, where he works. The boss sends him on a mission precisely into the kind of life that his own father had warned him to avoid (by words, if not by example, except for the example of getting himself killed). Yet he continually reminds him that he is doing this effectively to save people like his father. This first surrogate father seems to be everything his father wasn't: educated, successful, and "clean." Still, just as Russell's father asked him to sit by while he committed a crime, Russell's boss asks him to turn away from an investigation when it gets political.

He finds a better father figure in a "preacher" cop, who warns him in the same tone as his father had, but unlike his father practiced what he preached. At the same time, he is one who clearly has faced the demon in himself that he is trying to exorcise in others. Effectively, the movie is about Russell (the lead character played well by Laurence Fishburne) learning to face up to the fact that nothing he does will redeem his father or bring him back, and growing up by not merely avoiding his father's sins but by passing through and beyond them. In the end, he is neither a "straight arrow" or a "lost soul" but is faced with a choice that he poses to the audience, in order to suggest that there are no easy answers to the existential questions faced by those who are caught up in the world that killed Russell's father. (In a subplot, he develops a relationship with a young hispanic boy whose mother is in effectively the same position as was his own father.)

On top of that, Russell is paired with a "brother" of sorts, a lawyer played by Jeff Goldblum, who is in many ways his mirror image. Unlike Russell, David (Goldblum) has everything: a beautiful family, a nice house, a good job. He doesn't do crime, like Russell's father, out of necessity but out of a fascination with the other side, with the criminal element and even (in a not entirely developed but intriguing sub theme) with the idea of being black (he has a black lover, he is fascinated nearly to the point of an erotic attraction by Russell - who he describes in action as a "beautiful beast"). Unlike Russell's father who hated the life of crime that he felt obligated to pursue, David gives up his family to pursue the dark life of crime for its own sake. It is against this "double" that Russell defines himself -- refusing in the end to be a criminal and insisting that he is still a cop.

Sure it's simplistic, but it's a fun and entertaining film, that plays with the psychology of motivation and with moral questions that are inevitable in the "war on drugs" (or the "war on terror," for that matter). The directing is solid and some scenes like the first one are quite good. The script is engaging and mostly clever, with convincing characterizations. The reversals in the story and the fact it uses a grand scheme to address highly personal issues of morality and choice are to be expected from a film that was co-scripted by Michael Tolkin -- who also wrote Altman's "The Player" and wrote and directed "The Rapture." There are some extraneous side plots here and there, and both the DEA and the mafia didn't seem very well developed or plausible. For that matter, the idea that with a little bit of luck and a charismatic "tough" attitude one can get to the top of the drug mafia food chain in a matter of weeks or months is sheer fantasy (of a sort that makes "Miami Vice" look realistic). Still, the fantasy elements are really subordinate to the personal story of a boy facing up the consequences and implications of a tragic childhood event. Worth seeing if you can get in to this kind of thing.