Zone dangereuse

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.

``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.

When South African native Vusi returns from 15 years in America he finds himself a stranger in his own home. He has come to bury his father but is asked by his mother to find his youngest brother who has gone missing in Johannesburg. Checking out an address Vusi meets one of his brothers friends Karin, and finds that his brother has stolen money from a drug dealer - creating more problems for Vusi as Muki is willing to kill to get his money back.

This starts with flashbacks to South Africa during the early 80's, where we find Ice Cube –ys, you heard me – was one of the student leaders of the uprising for change. Years later he returns, bringing with him a heavy monologue that lectures us about drugs being the new trap for the black man and how he must help the kids etc. The story itself never really gets interesting – the only interest is the possibility to learn about life in S. Africa, however even that is a bit stereotyped.

The monologue makes the film feel even heavier than it is, but when the film eventually settles in the guns n' gangstas ending that it promises it appears to have confused itself. The film lectures about making the right choice as men, about the evils of drugs – in fact Vusi makes it his mission in USA and S. Africa to help kids stay in education etc. However after all that lecturing, a happy ending only comes with murder, violence and guns – is that the films message? That drugs are bad and are a global trap for the black man and the only way to stop them is to leave education programmes and murder anyone involved in the deals? I wouldn't have seen it this way if it had just set itself out as another thriller with an African twist, but because it is message heavy until it gets guns, I feel that it wanted to have it both ways when it can't.

Ice Cube is watchable, even when he is in rubbish films, here he is OK but is really pushing the laid-back yank thing too much. His voice over is so preachy and monotonous that at times I thought he was falling asleep in the studio. Hurley looks sexy (despite working in a strip cub where no-one gets naked!) but her accent wanders all over the place – from English to African and back again. Ving Rhames plays a sort of African Marcellus Wallace – the first dialogue scene he has all we see is the back of his head……very Pulp Fiction. His accent is good but his character is nothing new.

Overall this `action' movie is dull – the interesting cast make it worth one watch but no more than that. The mix of `stay in school kids' and `just say no' is too heavy and labourious, but is made even more pointless by the film's conclusion that the best way to deal with criminals destroying an area is to get guns and kill them!

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.

The great acting by Ice Cube,(Vusi Madlazi) and Elizabeth Hurley,(Karen),"Method",'04 helped the viewer enjoy most of this film which dealt strictly with a wild goose chase in a large City in South Africa. Vusi Madlazi lives in San Francisco and his immediate family live in South Africa and his father dies and the family needs the help of Vusi to try and locate his brother. Apparently his brother is mixed up with drugs and gambling and some bad dudes are also interested in finding him. Elizabeth Hurley,(Karen),"Method",'04 is a good friend of Vusi's brother and meets up with Vusi who she immediately gets the hots for. However, Vusi has a girl friend in San Francisco who he is very serious with and could possibly marry her. I praise the great acting of Ice Cube and Elizabeth Hurley, who made this a some what interesting film. In other words, it is not a very great film and has so many twists and turns, you really begin to lose interest completely.