There are some good sequences in this backstreets thriller which allies elements of an old-fashioned film noir (the undercover, cut-off cop; the deep, monotone narration), to a more modern, if familiar story about said cop's attempts to bust a nationwide narcotics organisation. Naturally he becomes dazzled by the ease of his new life as a drugs dealer (his father was a criminal junkie) and, kept largely in the dark by superiors themselves at the mercy of government whim, sinks deeper into the life of the underworld. The dialogue between dope-dealers who never seem to trust each other has the ring of truth and the story is incisively told by director Bill Duke. Writers Henry Bean and Michael Tolkin seem less able, however, to write convincing dialogue for women which, coupled with a weakish performance by Victoria Dillard, leads to the least satisfactory passages in the film. Laurence Fishburne rightly allows himself few smiles as the cop who's never quite on top of his own destiny, while Jeff Goldblum is pretty well on the mark as the dope-dealing bigtime lawyer whose life and mind hover on the brink of explosive violence.

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