Dangerous Ground

A movie set in South Africa, that started off, promising much, but ended with you feeling maybe you should get more for your money. The acting was not bad, but the plot was a bit thin, and sometimes a little unrealistic. Ice Cube plays an American gone to South Africa after the death of his father, where his family informs him about his brother who has gone missing. Here he meets up with his brother's girlfriend played by Liz Hurley, who is heavily into heroin. They then set about finding his brother, which includes Shooting people, blowing things up, blah, blah, blah. After a while it all gets a bit predictable.

Enjoyed the film, although nothing to write home about, and actually thought Liz Hurley played her part well, although I don't like her very much.

I know a little Zulu and one scene fascinated me. It was at a funeral in the kraal of Ice Cube's family. He is supposed to be a Xhosa (ko-sa), but I swear the others were speaking in Zulu. I may be wrong, but if right, this is extremely amusing as the Zulus and Xhosas tend to start killing each other from the age of around twelve!

I wondered why, when they were supposed to be at a funeral, they seemed to be laughing, perhaps they saw the funny side. :-)

If I am right, then the producer and director ought to be shot for employing zulu actors playing Xhosa people, yet speaking Zulu.

Starts off nice, but later on becomes an typical American movie with drugs, guns and you even forget that the movie takes place in Africa. If it wasn't for the charming Elizabeth Hurley i would have shut off the TV. This Vusi guy comes back to his home in South Africa blah blah shoots some people smoke some heroin hits some white guys(I was kind of sad i wanted them to kick his fat ass) and the movie ends. Don't bother to see this movie.

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.

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!