杀人三步曲

乱世之中，土匪横行，一心搞钱的痞匪彭一男（张晋饰）与兄弟雷五（国义骞饰）、麻明（宁桓宇饰）结伴走江湖、讨生计。陌生女子庄月（程怡饰）见识过他们的拳脚和计谋后，以一根金条为酬，托三人上山劫亲，反向抢人！谁知在这穷凶极恶的匪窝中，彭一男苦寻多年未果的灭门仇人，竟也意外显露踪迹……新仇旧恨、家仇民愤一起算，真狠人彭一男闯匪窝，讨血债，爽除恶，杀到底！

迪恩有着严重的暴力倾向，假释在家的他正在接受心理治疗，年少时的所作所为伤透了母亲的心并与家族断绝了关系，唯一的安慰就是弟弟会经常写信给他。有一天，一封邀请他去参加弟弟葬礼的来信将他平静的生活打破。来到举办葬礼的小岛后他困惑于弟弟的死因，同时依然不被母亲所接受。这时，一伙人也登陆了小岛，将迪恩和他的家人劫为人质并找开始寻找隐藏在岛上的东西。想办法解救家人的迪恩在与这伙人交手的过程中发现了弟弟死亡的秘密……

　　Having witnessed his junkie father killed Russell Stevens grows up to become a policeman and make a difference. When he is offered an undercover job by Gerald Carver he accepts and begins to build a relationship with David Jason in order to get to the main dealers. However as he is forced to deal drugs and kill to keep his cover he finds the lines between cop and criminal being lost – is he a cop pretending to be a dealer or a dealer pretending to be a cop?
　　Larry (as he was then) Fishburne's first lead role was a typically dark vehicle. The story is the usual one of cop losing himself when undercover, however it manages to be more than that for most of the time. Co-written by Tolkin, who wrote The Player, this naturally has a nice cynical edge to it when it looks at the US's hypocritical approach to drug control and the political links between the street hustlers and the political high rollers who court respectability. The story does eventually settle into a traditional setting but even then it works well as a thriller.
　　The multi-talented Bill Duke directs well with a gritty feel and a few nice touches. However several things are a bit iffy. For most of the film Fishburne's narration/voice over is a bit like a cross between Apocalypse Now and Blade Runner – it comes across as a little too dark and heavy and also explains things like we can't figure it out ourselves. However once you get into the film it's not as big a deal. My main problem lies with the characters.
　　Fishburne is excellent, a real model of underlying anger and violence, Goldblum is good but perhaps a little OTT on the yuppie/violence thing, but there's good support from Smith and Spin City's beautiful (and often underused – but not here) Victoria Dillard. However the two main white characters (Goldblum and Smith) are both smeared with racist insinuations – Smith appears to insult his black officers and doesn't care about the junkies, while Goldblum is fascinated about all things black and talks about them as wild beautiful beasts and loves having sex with "black'. These things aren't a major problem, but with basically only two white characters in it, it's a little worrying that both are given that edge.
　　However these are minor complaints that get lost with a good thriller. Fishburne excels and Duke delivers a story that is a good thriller but also has a jaded, subversive edge.