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Deep Cover Details

1992 Certificate 18
  • Rated:
  • 60
  • from 1396 members

Made during the black film boom that followed the success of BOYZ N THE HOOD, DEEP COVER is that rare and beautiful thing--a genuinely smart action movie. Screenwriters Michael Tolkin (THE PLAYER) and Henry Bean have written a clever but gritty, hard-hitting script, and director Bill Duke (A RAGE IN HARLEM) brings just the .. Read more

Starring Jeff Goldblum, Laurence Fishburne, Clarence Williams, Charles Martin Smith
Director Bill Duke
Genres Action/Adventure, Thriller

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Deep Cover cover art

Deep Cover

Made during the black film boom that followed the success of BOYZ N THE HOOD, DEEP COVER is that rare and beautiful thing--a genuinely smart action movie. Screenwriters Michael Tolkin (THE PLAYER) and Henry Bean have written a clever but gritty, hard-hitting script, and director Bill Duke (A RAGE IN HARLEM) brings just the right tone to the material. It has an appropriately gloomy palette of glaring reds and dark blues and a dissonant, hip-hop-influenced score that enhances the sardonic mood. Laurence Fishburne narrates and stars in the challenging role of Russell Stevens Jr., an undercover cop who finds himself slipping onto the wrong side of the law. The federal agent who runs the undercover operation (Charles Martin Smith) tells Stevens to enjoy his drug-dealer lifestyle. And when the motives of the government Stevens works for come into question, the line between cop and criminal gets even more blurred. Stevens, the somber cop, has the perfect counterpoint in David Jason (Jeff Goldblum), the hilariously manic crooked lawyer. While Stevens is tormented and questions the morality of his every action, the formerly sheltered Jason is at first terrified, then enthralled by becoming a drug kingpin and a killer.

Starring Jeff Goldblum, Laurence Fishburne, Clarence Williams, Charles Martin Smith, Victoria Dillard, Sydney Lassick
Director Bill Duke
Studio ENTERTAINMENT IN VIDEO
Run time DVD: 1 hr 43 mins
Certificate Certificate 18
Genres Action/Adventure, Thriller
Language DVD: English
Released DVD: 28 Jun 2004
Production year: 1992
Format DVD

  • Critics' reviews (3) of Deep Cover

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  • 4 stars out of 5

    One of the most under-rated cop thrillers of the 1990s, this is an exhilarating and intelligent examination of the blurred line between those who break the law and those who enforce it. A suitably intense Laurence (still being billed as Larry) Fishburne is the undercover detective who sets out to unravel a major drugs ring by forming a curious alliance with shady, neurotic lawyer Jeff Goldblum. It's their relationship that forms the heart of the movie and both deliver superb performances, particularly Goldblum as the middle-class boy fatally addicted to the glamour of crime. However, director Bill Duke doesn't stint on the action sequences and makes good use of some stunningly choreographed slices of screen mayhem.

    • Radio Times
    • Posted 29 Jan 2006

  • Fishburne, sensational in his first starring role, is a mid-West undercover cop brought in to infiltrate a West coast... read more on Time Out

    • Time Out
    • Posted 04 Nov 2008

  • Most helpful member's review of Deep Cover

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  • 5 out of 5 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 3 stars

    Surprisingly good!

    This was the film that made me change my mind about Jeff Goldblum, who I'd never really liked. He and Laurence Fishburne were excellent in this film. Strangely, although this isn't the sort of film that you expect to stick with you, something about it just made me think it had something more than the average cop film.

    It is different, original and surprising.

      • carlyoungcat from Derby
      • Posted 04 Feb 2005 19:01

  • Most recent members' review of Deep Cover

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  • 1 out of 1 person found this review helpful

    Rated - 3 stars

    Shallow Cover

    As unsettling as it is entertaining. At first you wonder whether this is going to be another film that glamourises the drug world but it successfully avoids this (just). The good plot starts well but is progressively undermined by lack of depth to the story line and the unplausable rate of progress of the lead character. However, set this aside and enjoy as normal Hollywood fare as it does keep you watching.

      • nab1 from London
      • Posted 01 Nov 2005 08:52

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    • Deep Cover

    • Deep Cover
      Made during the black film boom that followed the success of BOYZ N THE HOOD, DEEP COVER is that rare and beautiful thing--a genuinely smart action movie. Screenwriters Michael Tolkin (THE PLAYER) and Henry Bean have written a clever but gritty, hard-hitting script, and director Bill Duke (A RAGE ...