Having witnessed his junkie father killed Russell Stevens grows up to become a policeman and make a difference       When he is offered an undercover job by Gerald Carver he accepts and begins to build a relationship with David Jason in order to get to the main dealers       However as he is forced to deal drugs and kill to keep his cover he finds the lines between cop and criminal being lost – is he a cop pretending to be a dealer or a dealer pretending to be a cop　　Larry (as he was then) Fishburne's first lead role was a typically dark vehicle       The story is the usual one of cop losing himself when undercover, however it manages to be more than that for most of the time       Co-written by Tolkin, who wrote The Player, this naturally has a nice cynical edge to it when it looks at the US's hypocritical approach to drug control and the political links between the street hustlers and the political high rollers who court respectability       The story does eventually settle into a traditional setting but even then it works well as a thriller      　　The multi-talented Bill Duke directs well with a gritty feel and a few nice touches       However several things are a bit iffy       For most of the film Fishburne's narrationvoice over is a bit like a cross between Apocalypse Now and Blade Runner – it comes across as a little too dark and heavy and also explains things like we can't figure it out ourselves       However once you get into the film it's not as big a deal       My main problem lies with the characters      　　Fishburne is excellent, a real model of underlying anger and violence, Goldblum is good but perhaps a little OTT on the yuppieviolence thing, but there's good support from Smith and Spin City's beautiful (and often underused – but not here) Victoria Dillard       However the two main white characters (Goldblum and Smith) are both smeared with racist insinuations – Smith appears to insult his black officers and doesn't care about the junkies, while Goldblum is fascinated about all things black and talks about them as wild beautiful beasts and loves having sex with black'       These things aren't a major problem, but with basically only two white characters in it, it's a little worrying that both are given that edge      　　However these are minor complaints that get lost with a good thriller       Fishburne excels and Duke delivers a story that is a good thriller but also has a jaded, subversive edge