directed by Bill Duke
Russell Stevens (Laurence Fishburne), a cop from Cincinnati, accepts an offer from Carver, a federal agent, to work undercover. Stevens moves to California, adopts the name Hull, and works his way into a drug dealing operation. He partners up with a David Jason (Jeff Goldblum), a lawyer who bankrolls some of the drug dealers and is unaware that Hull is really a cop named Stevens.
More than one of the people Hull and Jason deal with turn out to be working for the police. They escape more than one attempt on their lives as they try to get closer to the top of the drug dealing food chain. Taft (Clarence Williams III), a local police detective, crosses paths with Stevens on more than one occasion.
Carver gives Stevens orders to back off after he interferes with a sting operation but Stevens refuses. He has gotten too close to David and Betty, his business partner.
I had my doubts about this movie but I had heard good things about it. I like aspects of it. I like the feel of the movie and the way it is made. The story feels a little too facile but I like the ambiguity of the ending. It felt right.
Notes
Glynn Turman plays Stevens father who only shows up briefly at the beginning of the movie. He has been in a lot of movies and television. I saw him most recently in Season 4 of Fargo.
Carver is played by Charles Martin Smith. I know him best from The Untouchables (1987) in which he played the accountant, Oscar Wallace.
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