Dangerous Ground

Feisty South African academic Vusi (Ice Cube) was thrown into America's 'fugee-loving arms at 14, but now, with the death of his father, it's time to pop home. Thanks to an inability to stick big knives into squirming goats, he finds himself at odds with his family. Nevertheless, as first-born, he's the one sent to find an errant brother in Johannesburg, where he teams up with his brother's girlfriend Karen (Hurley), a crack-addled stripper. Directed by Darrell Roodt, a white South African, this set-up promises some interesting conflicts: 'sophisticated' America vs 'authentic' Africa; the old apartheid South Africa vs the new. But you get the feeling there was a kerfuffle about who the film was aimed at, and that someone plumped for adolescent boys weaned on Beverly Hills Cop. The doom and gloom surrounding South Africa's future merely serves as an excuse for America's finest to take matters in hand. Why, you might ask, can't the South Africans do it for themselves? Because, according to this film, they're ineffectual kaftan-wearers or effete junkies.