Dangerous Ground (1997) User Reviews

It was all, you know, separated.

[ogdendc · 3/10 · 17 December 2014]

The opening scene flashes between black and white and colour. Ice Cube is studying in America and has returned to South Africa at the end of apartheid. No trace of an African accent. You know this is going to be unrealistic when they refer to the USA as a cosy democracy.

Here's a summary. Some of the scenery is spectacular. Camera-work is functional. Most of the acting is dire and the dialogue cringeworthy.

Liz Hurley is gorgeous as always, and posh English as always. She does have the habit of answering the door to strangers while dressed in scanty underwear. I would have thought that unusual, even for a professional stripper.

After Ice is carjacked he doesn't call the police. he returns to his hotel. Liz Hurley gets in touch. She's also had some problems 'Did you call the police?' asks Ice.

It now turns out that Liz is Ice's brother's girlfriend as well as neighbour. But brother Stephen has gone missing. Liz now gets Ice to get her drugs. The dealer is suspicious. Meanwhile who should knock at the door? It's Stephen, but he doesn't seem pleased to see his brother.

Now they head off back to Ice's hotel. I'm getting bored now, like Ice sounds when he makes those phone calls back home. The score is starting to get annoying too.

Then we wind our way to the finale – predictable and dull.

Ouch.

[screamingfoot · 4/10 · 10 January 2003]

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.

I got your boy right here......

[FlashCallahan · 3/10 · 15 September 2013]

Vusi returns to the South African village he left as a young to bury his father.

He meets up with his brother Ernest, who tells him their other brother Stephen couldn't be contacted.

Vusi goes to Johannesburg to find him, but at first can only find his neighbour, Karin, a stripper.

Vusi proceeds to learn how conditions have changed since the end of apartheid, not always for the better......

Ice Cube takes a trip, and its not long into the film before he could be anywhere. I mean S. Africa has some beautiful locations, but no, we focus on Cube and how many times he has a gun pointed to his head.

He searches for his brother, who owes some money to special guest star Rhames, and takes a very wooden Hurley along for the ride ( this proves that Austin Powers was a one off)' a very long and boring ride.

If this tries to deliver any sort of political message, it fails, because the characters are just so unlikable, even the faceless girlfriend of Cube.

All people seem to do is kill, and take drugs in Dangerous Ground world, and the only decent people kill goats.

Its really a pig of a film, but the supporting cast are really good, and really make your blood boil.

On the plus side its the best film ever to feature Ving Rhames making chicken noises come the end...

A horrible waste of time...

[mike_saun · 9 August 2000]

``Everything was like, y'know, separated.''

With this comically clumsy explanation of apartheid, an actual line from this unfortunate film, any meager hope for ``Dangerous Ground'' evaporated like a Transkei rain shower.

How flawed is this film?

Consider that its star, Ice Cube, utters that clunker yet is supposed to be believable as a South African exile living in the United States, a former student protest leader sent abroad as a teenager. He doesn't even attempt a credible accent, so his character, Vusi, winds up sounding straight outta South Central and not South Africa, where the film is set.

His costar, Elizabeth Hurley, as the semi-exotic dancer Karin, has a peculiar habit of answering her door wearing next to nothing, despite being on the run from nefarious drug-dealing thugs from the South African underworld.

Since Karin is conveniently the main squeeze of Vusi's wayward crackhead brother, also on the run from the aformentioned nasties, the pair are the unlikely salt-and-pepper buddy team that this film hangs upon. ``Hanged upon'' is probably more accurate, since there is zero rapport between the rapper and the perfume plugger.

There's not much action and even less suspense, and there's an unshakable air of implausibility every time Ice Cube opens his mouth. The things that work in this film are Ving Rhames as a driven drug lord and the unintentional humor from a script that is laughably bad when it is not outright stupid. For example:

Vusi's rental BMW is car-jacked, then he totals the replacement, then somehow gets another the same day?

A graduate student in African studies, with no other family in America, secures $14,000 in a day to pay off his brother's crack debt?

Two druggies proclaim extreme paranoia but fail to lock the door of their hotel suite?

And there should be a bounty on the head of the person who penned the line ``Steven was in over his head -- but so was the country.'' South African director Darrell Roodt (``Cry, the Beloved Country'') shares part of the blame for the inept dialogue and inexplicable plot gaps as co-writer. Shame, shame, shame.

A punchline betraying not a jot of joy or insight

[HenryHextonEsq · 1/10 · 12 November 2002]

This 'motion picture' is an absolute joke. It simply cannot be taken seriously; taking on the South African situation and inserting Ice Cube and Elizabeth Hurley just about sums it up. And it can't even be 'taken humorously' as the whole charade is so utterly joyless and deadly dull.

This film is cliché-addled in the extreme; South Africa is presented, pretty much, as any old place; only distinguished by the occasional accent and the excessive crime rate. Any sense of reality is out of the equation, as is entertaining or useful usage of melodrama or other non-naturalistic forms. One has to laugh really; there's nothing else to do when you are presented with the posturing and faux-sincerity invested in the film by its average team of actors. But it is a hollow laugh, betraying not a jot of joy or insight.

The weak storyline, which does not engage the mind on any level, is sketched out through dialogue by turns dull and absurd. As ever in 'serious' films inflected by her presence, Liz Hurley is a liability. The woman just cannot act it seems; thus, she seems more effective simply hamming up her own image in "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" and "Bedazzled". Her attempts at a South Africa accent gad around all over the globe; an embarrassingly inept effort, in truth. Yes, she 'looks good', depending quite upon one's own tastes, but it appears that that is the only reason she is here - along with her ubiquitous, 'dat skirt'-fuelled star name.

So, a damn well disastrous film, and a real waste of time spent watching it.

Finally, a cure for insomnia.

[bscottcork · 2/10 · 6 February 2014]

I saw this flick the other night on "Bounce TV" and the only saving grace it has is when Liz Hurley smokes crack and gets all horny for Ice Cube. Ice is a horrible actor and brings nothing to his role as a street wise thug who is intent on getting his brother out of debt to a ruthless drug lord played by the scenery-chewing actor, Ving Rhames. However, I was titillated by the appearance of the tweaked out crack head stripper, Karen, played ably and with surprising acuity by the lovely Ms. Hurley. I did not have to suspend my disbelief {much}to think that she actually may have really smoked crack and when she does she tries to get Ice into bed, but he won't because she's his brothers g/f.

Hurley & Cube were Hot

[whpratt1 · 4/10 · 17 July 2006]

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.

Good, but could have been better

[culwin · 6/10 · 29 July 2000]

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.

Meaningful "gangsta" movie

[Gorilla Punk · 9/10 · 13 January 2003]

Ice Cube, believe it or not, was convincing as a scholarly South African exile who returns home after the end of apartheid. I felt this movie had more meaning than any other typical "gangsta" movie. I also enjoyed Elizabeth Hurley. Sure, some parts weren't believable, including the very last scene, which was really lame, but overall, I liked Dangerous Ground. Very few films have been made about South Africa, and I'm glad movie writers have managed to look beyond South Central L.A. for a black action thriller setting.

Good Message wrapped in bad writing

[bookwormgal · 7/10 · 17 July 2006]

Yes Hurley's accent gads all over the place but that is how English South Africans sound like (I should know I'm married to one).

However the plot does meander all over the place, and with someone like Ice Cube and the general premise of the movie there should definitely be more action in it.

Roodt should take some lessons from Hood because Tsotsi delivered on the same basic message whileas Dangerous Ground just comes off as a mildly entertaining, barely passable TV movie.

While it has its good points (accurate SA visuals for the time depicted, accurate depiction of Afrikaneer thugs and black Tsotsi's) there are points where the acting needs to be taken up a notch or two. And of course the writing is so thin and predictable if it was a dress it'd be see-through.

I don't think it's as horrible as the first reviewer (mainly because I have been to Johannesburg and it DOES look that old an worn-out) but agree that the writing and acting was not up to par.

Tries to be meaningful but is really one big smug cliché with a stupid confused message

[bob the moo · 7 April 2002]

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!

Great to see Elizabeth Hurley

[franco-28 · 10/10 · 13 October 1999]

I liked the movie, it moved along & kept your attention, but Elzabeth Hurley, talk about a fabulous woman, I dont care if she can act, she looks good enough that it doesnt matter. Even if just to see her portrayal of a junkie stripper is worth the price of the movie. If your a Hurley fan, watch this movie!

Violent Drama

[Robbie-23 · 19 March 1999]

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.

Cube!Hollywood B-movie!

[kenandraf · 10/10 · 27 August 2001]

Cube and Hurley do ok performances here in this below average action/drama.Big Cube and Hurley fans will tolerate this one.Ruined by bad screenplay,script and directing.The action sequences in the end is very cliche and un-original.Good to see Cube blasting away though.He has so much potential.......

Bad Direction

[Ampers · 17 March 2004]

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.

Kind Of Boring

[dsomekh · 21 July 2001]

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.