Tierra de odios

I watched this on some lame cable channel that edited out certain

things, and eliminated swearing ("bulldirt?"). The only reason I

watched this was the Elizabeth Hurley credit in the beginning. She

wasn't nearly naked enough. It's admirable that the producer's

tried to make a movie with a message, but the social commentary

was undeveloped, and not very moving. I just wanted to see

Elizabeth Hurley after the first 3 minutes, and that's all I had to look

forward to, once it became apparent that this movie SUCKED! The

screenplay, and direction were laughable, and it seemed that the

writer of this thing had no idea how people speak in South Africa.

The ending showdown scene has been done to death, and was

as cliche as the rest of the film.

This movie will keep you watching to the end, but unfortunately it ends up feeling like just another gangsta movie. They touched on the problems of South Africa but ultimately this story could have been set almost anywhere. The South Africa setting is just incidental. The lines between good & bad are too easily drawn - the characters seem 1 dimensional at times. Different and interesting, but ultimately unfulfilling in some ways.

I saw this flick the other night on "Bounce TV" and the only saving grace it has is when Liz Hurley smokes crack and gets all horny for Ice Cube. Ice is a horrible actor and brings nothing to his role as a street wise thug who is intent on getting his brother out of debt to a ruthless drug lord played by the scenery-chewing actor, Ving Rhames. However, I was titillated by the appearance of the tweaked out crack head stripper, Karen, played ably and with surprising acuity by the lovely Ms. Hurley. I did not have to suspend my disbelief {much}to think that she actually may have really smoked crack and when she does she tries to get Ice into bed, but he won't because she's his brothers g/f.

Yes Hurley's accent gads all over the place but that is how English South Africans sound like (I should know I'm married to one).

However the plot does meander all over the place, and with someone like Ice Cube and the general premise of the movie there should definitely be more action in it.

Roodt should take some lessons from Hood because Tsotsi delivered on the same basic message whileas Dangerous Ground just comes off as a mildly entertaining, barely passable TV movie.

While it has its good points (accurate SA visuals for the time depicted, accurate depiction of Afrikaneer thugs and black Tsotsi's) there are points where the acting needs to be taken up a notch or two. And of course the writing is so thin and predictable if it was a dress it'd be see-through.

I don't think it's as horrible as the first reviewer (mainly because I have been to Johannesburg and it DOES look that old an worn-out) but agree that the writing and acting was not up to par.

``Everything was like, y'know, separated.''

With this comically clumsy explanation of apartheid, an actual line from this unfortunate film, any meager hope for ``Dangerous Ground'' evaporated like a Transkei rain shower.

How flawed is this film?

Consider that its star, Ice Cube, utters that clunker yet is supposed to be believable as a South African exile living in the United States, a former student protest leader sent abroad as a teenager. He doesn't even attempt a credible accent, so his character, Vusi, winds up sounding straight outta South Central and not South Africa, where the film is set.

His costar, Elizabeth Hurley, as the semi-exotic dancer Karin, has a peculiar habit of answering her door wearing next to nothing, despite being on the run from nefarious drug-dealing thugs from the South African underworld.

Since Karin is conveniently the main squeeze of Vusi's wayward crackhead brother, also on the run from the aformentioned nasties, the pair are the unlikely salt-and-pepper buddy team that this film hangs upon. ``Hanged upon'' is probably more accurate, since there is zero rapport between the rapper and the perfume plugger.

There's not much action and even less suspense, and there's an unshakable air of implausibility every time Ice Cube opens his mouth. The things that work in this film are Ving Rhames as a driven drug lord and the unintentional humor from a script that is laughably bad when it is not outright stupid. For example:

Vusi's rental BMW is car-jacked, then he totals the replacement, then somehow gets another the same day?

A graduate student in African studies, with no other family in America, secures $14,000 in a day to pay off his brother's crack debt?

Two druggies proclaim extreme paranoia but fail to lock the door of their hotel suite?

And there should be a bounty on the head of the person who penned the line ``Steven was in over his head -- but so was the country.'' South African director Darrell Roodt (``Cry, the Beloved Country'') shares part of the blame for the inept dialogue and inexplicable plot gaps as co-writer. Shame, shame, shame.