Deep Cover

Smart and stylish, it also has scenes of crackling violence and dramaturgy that oftentimes strains to work but, on the whole, Deep Cover is engaging, thoughtful and inventive.

Convoluted and mostly unconvincing as a portrait of the drug underworld, Deep Cover [based on a story by Michael Tolkin] still carries some resonance due to its vivid portrait of societal decay and a heavyweight performance by Larry Fishburne.

What emerges is a powerhouse thriller full of surprises, original touches, and rare political lucidity, including an impressive performance by Jeff Goldblum.

In addition to Fishburne, it gives us a first-rate soundtrack, a clutch of splendid cameos, fine, grainy direction from Duke, and much pointed stuff about the hypocrisy behind the USA's so-called war against drugs.

Deep Cover eventually degenerates into so much gratuitous violence that 'kill' sounds like the most-used verb in the screenplay's last stages.

Rather than ride the easy cynicism of the script, by Michael Tolkin and Henry Bean, Fishburne illuminates his character's moral struggle.

Deep Cover is a hidden piece of noir revived in the 1990s the blends in with the rap soundtrack from Dr. Dre and Snoop Dog...

A savage but sage unraveling of best intentions into a no-win situation. It's a thriller of sharp edges and ideas that borrows the patois and patina of noir, in which violent ends are not romanticized but simply just rationalized to diminished returns.

This is not a simple story of a cop breaking bad. Instead, its a look at a Black man questioning his own place in the hierarchy of law enforcement and within America itself.

An unapologetically blunt crime drama which plays with the concepts of good and evil to create a complex thriller