Dangerous Ground
Dangerous Ground
R | 12 February 1997 (USA)
Dangerous Ground Trailers

Vusi Madlazi returns to the South African village he left as a young boy 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 neighbor/girlfriend, Karin, a stripper. Vusi proceeds to learn how conditions have changed since the end of apartheid, not always for the better for black men.

Reviews
Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.
Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
Tom May 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.
bob the moo 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!
dsomekh 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.
culwin 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.