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.

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.

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.

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.

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.