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I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Blistering performances.

Great action, great dialogues, fast paced story and no boring filler scenes, an early 90's quality movie, before internet ruined the industry. Goldblum and Fishbourne are great and the supporting cast is perfect.

It's 1972 Cleveland. As a child, Russell Stevens Jr. witnesses his drug addicted father get killed. He vows never to touch drugs. 20 years later, he (Laurence Fishburne) is a beat cop in Cincinnati. He is recruited into going undercover for the DEA by Special Agent Gerald Carver. In L.A., he is going after importer Anton Gallegos and his uncle south American politician Hector Gúzman. He connects with street dealer Eddie Dudley who gets him arrested. Drug lawyer David Jason (Jeff Goldblum) takes his case and introduces him to Gallegos.Laurence Fishburne and Jeff Goldblum are good. However I don't like Fishburne's narration which drains the movie of its tension and thrills. I don't think the story or the characters are anything original. Maybe the narration kept me from enjoying this more and finding that specialness.

Deep Cover is one of those better drug movies, an ode masterpiece to the legendary actor Bill Duke, who directs this impressive pic (surprise, where this hardly ever out of work character actor, has been gracing our screens for years. The solid actioner moves along nicely too, which has much more more to say, and gives us better insight into the drug problem. Running shy of a month at the cinema, where I took my dad to see it, the movie fared better with me, than I thought it would. We've got a real story going on, and characters. It's plotted beautifully like a piano tune. It's nice opening flashback establishes the main character's reasons for later becoming a cop, and hating drugs and liquor. When John Hull (a much slender Larry Fishburne) is approached by an DEA agent (a great Charles Martin Smith- fancy him popping up) he at first, is of course, adverse at the idea, of going undercover, when he realizes he's passed the audition (the earlier black interviewee cops had mixed reactions, you could say). He is talked around, coaxed into thinking he can do much better as an undercover cop, than walking the beat. Here, he meets an assortment of characters, mostly unsavory, one slick scum selling drug dealer, Luther, never a worse victim, at the hands of a whacking pool Cue, which as Fishburne describes says in his somber and flat voice, "The guy has a life expectancy of half an hour". This is a guy who really goes undercover, playing the part, living in squalor, and quickly rising to luxury, while working his way up the ladder, to nail the main players, one a real nasty, in a priest outfit, who rips Fishburne's earing, out of his ear. These are the pr..ks, behind this ever growing drug enterprise that kill so many of the young, hooked to crack, heroin. We learn a bit too, not just from the supposed good guys, but the leeches in fancy suits selling it. Goldblum as a slick bent lawyer, stood out, where Fishburne and him form a partnership. The movie has a lot of interesting attachments, like a young teen crack whore and kid, Fishburne befriends, as well as a hectoring undercover cop (Clarence Williams 3r'd who fatally buys it). Fishburne of course, can't reveal himself. We have a nice thrilling chase, and I guess a twist of character in Smith's intentions, where too we have a deadly hand smacking competition, and toilet trained pimp, who uses Fishburne's shoes as a head, before Fishburne, unlawfully blows him away. Yeah, he goes all the way, here. All in all Deep Cover has a lot to offer, as well as a great opening soundtrack. It has some actors who only pop up in a few other movies here and there. Fishburne holds back, playing it casual here, and he comes off better for it. I must say, it's a very real and likable performance, though it was Goldblum who stole the pic. Too it's much apparent, Hull has been hiding from himself, while in uniform

This film is up there, indeed at times exceeds the Hollywood remake of the BBC miniseries, Traffic, as a no-holds barred merciless look at the medium echelons of the drug trade and the so-called war on drugs in the United States during its time. I only gave it only an 8 because it is not exactly classic cinema material, although it is a valuable addition to any film library.Technically, the film is remarkable for a strong performance from the lead and support cast - look out for a chilling performance by Gregory Sierra as Felix Barbosa. Charles Martin Smith, playing Laurence Fishburne's DEA handler, has got the federal bureaucrat part down pat - I'm afraid to say , as always since he tends to get typecast in only this kind of role. Lawrence Fishburne turned in a stoic yet raging performance that was believable and easy to root for. Only problem, is that he too ended up being type cast in largely the same persona. Jeff Goldblum, mercurial and sharp as always added a lot of the flair of the film. Also hats off to the woman who played Fishburne's single mother/drug addict neighbor (I didn't catch her name). The rest of the supporting cast really enriched the story.The cinematography and editing were very effective and innovative for their time. Choppy editing with successive close ups was soon picked up by many future copycat films. This film was one of the original ones to use that editing idiom. The soundtrack also worked well , reflecting much of the cynicism and despair that pervades the movie ; at some moments the score enhanced chilling situations audibly, as it were.All this means that Bill Duke (and the producers) did a very good job.===== WARNING: SPOILERS - Possible spoilers ahead ===== Now story-wise, this has got to be one of the grimmest scripts to make it to production at the time. After seeing a film like the Player, I was surprised how that script ever made it to the big screen. Kudos for letting this film be made, really.I won't repeat the outlines of the plot - you can read the plot summary for that. The story could sound as a cliché along the lines of "all i wanted was to do good as a cop but they turned me into a drug dealer." But it is not cliché at all. The script is so well paced that the stakes are periodically raised higher and higher, and the key moments of the film are timed such that they exert their full dramatic effect. The stakes are raised as high as they can be in the context of the story and the twists do not insult this viewer's intelligence. There were probably plot holes, but I missed them - I was busy enjoying the movie.--- end spoilers --- This film is too dark for children and even early teens, but for the rest of the world it is a thought-inducing and worthy film, as a drama, a social/political critique and as a thriller/action/cop flick.