Deep Cover

Amazing crime drama. I thought this genre was going to go in this film's and One False Move's direction, but once Reservoir Dogs came out that pretty much ruined crime films. Not saying RD was bad, quite the opposite, it's a 5 star film, but it's imitators were usually terrible. Deep Cover and One False Move reminded me of seventies filmmaking, films about characters and the trials they go through and how they are affected by them. It would be very interesting to see what would have happened to the crime genre had it followed in this intelligent direction. more

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... more

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... more

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 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! more