Russell Stevens (Lawrence Fishburne) is a cop haunted by the violent death of his father.
Desperate to get drugs off the streets, he is recruited to an elite vice squad, and soon finds himself undercover, working his way up from street dealer to the top of the LA underworld.
Seduced by his new life, Stevens becomes romantically involved with an art dealer laundering money for the cartel (Victoria Dillard) and starts working closely with David (Jeff Goldblum), a cartel lawyer and wannabe kingpin who is increasingly volatile.
Discovering that both cops and criminals are on the make, the boundaries between hero and villain becoming increasingly blurred, and he soon finds himself fighting the very system he once sought to protect.
Fishburne’s magnetic lead performance in Deep Cover is matched step for step by Goldblum, who plays one of cinema’s great maniacs in a career-best performance.
Bill Duke, meanwhile (who directed this between starring in Predator and directing Sister Act II) molds Deep Cover into a scabrous attack on America’s War on Drugs, portrayed as a racket designed to force minority communities into lives of crime.
Melding the punch of Blaxploitation with a dash of Samuel Fuller, and with a great soundtrack featuring the first solo single from Dr. Dre, Deep Cover is a stylish and nail-biting thriller that also offers one of Hollywood’s most brutal assessments of race and power in America.