Larry Fishburne should have played his role more like King of New York

With a musical score as hot as Dre Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg's "Deep Cover" this movie could have been so much more hard edged when it came to Fishburn's lead role. He wasn't nearly convincing enough as a bad guy. We know he's not into the criminal stuff so why does he have to show his discomfort with it in his face and his actions so overtly obvious. This is the same guy who played the psycho murderer Jimmy Jump in "King of New York" as Christopher Walken's lunatic hitman. Now that Laurence Fishburne would have convinced me he wasn't a cop. I thought that the guy who played Jeff Goldblum's violent nemesis (the drug importer Anton Gallegos) Arthur Mendoza gave far more interesting a performance. Jeff Goldblum, too was unconvincing as a nerd turned cold-blooded terminator.

But Fishburne, like Richard Widmark (in Kiss of Death, 1947) had a previous performance that might have better fit the bill. Although, oddly enough Widmark made a failed attempt at making his Tommy Udo back to life in O. Henry's "Full House" (1952) segment titled "The Clarion Call". He repeated the Tommy Udo sneer and threatening demeanor to a tee, but it didn't translate well at all.


But Jimmy Jump had the body language (the walk), and the amusing hip street jargon (the talk) to back up his involvement in cold murderous drug dealing. Why do characters like this break out of role to remind us they're really moles. He could have been so baaaad. Like the way his character Jimmy Jump iced his victims in "King of New York." Same with Omar Epps in "In Too Deep" with L.L. Omar Epps wasn't any where near as bad as LL in that one, too. Now Method Man's performance in "Belly" - There was a funky gangster. "Knowledge Born, What's the science baby?"