You’ve seen all the action before in In Too Deep, the lame-titled urban thriller from writer Michael Henry Brown (Dead Presidents) and Aussie director Michael Rymer (Angel Baby). Packaged with hip street lingo and flashy clothes, In Too Deep plays like a ’90s updating of an episode — any episode, take your pick — of the ’70s show Kojak.
But there is one thing Kojak didn’t have that In Too Deep does: up-and-comer Omar Epps, coincidentally hot off another undercover cop fiasco, The Mod Squad. Neither film’s failings can be blamed on Epps, a powerhouse of talent who’s been quietly building a varied resume for nearly a decade. (He had a starring role in John Singleton’s Higher Learning, and did a stint on ER in 1994.) This could be Epps’ breakout year, with fine work in The Wood behind him and the Alan Rudolph’s Breakfast of Champions on his bright horizon, but In Too Deep doesn’t constitute a high point.
Still, Epps approaches the stale material with intensity and unpredictability, playing police cadet Jeff Cole, who wangles a deep undercover assignment on the streets of urban Cincinnati. It’s a job he’s wanted since the age of 12, growing up an eyewitness to the ravages of drug culture on poor, urban blacks. Under the alias J. Reid, he succeeds in penetrating the inner sanctum of the city’s drug kingpin, an untouchable drug lord named God (LL Cool J in a fine performance). God rules over the projects with an iron fist gloved in lambs’ wool. Outwardly a philanthropist, he throws lavish, public Thanksgiving Day events, hiding his sadistic treatment of the junkies who owe him money and the flunkies who rat on him.
Soon — and I hope I’m not giving anything away — Cole gets “in too deep.” He has trouble separating Jeff Cole from J. Reid, the good guys from the bad. In an ill-fitting role, Stanley Tucci steps in as the tough but empathetic veteran police mentor. He yanks Cole off the streets, hiding him for months in an Ohio farmhouse and effectively bringing the plot to an abrupt, yawn-inducing halt. When Cole sets aside his contemplative sabbatical and gets back to chasing God, the momentum must be achingly rebuilt.
In Too Deep never fully recovers.
The filmmakers should be given credit on two points. The story does a good job of showing how easy it is to be led down the path to addiction, and it keeps to a minimum the objectification of women, so common in drug-trade dramas. But that also means women’s roles throughout the film are kept to a minimum. One such instance is Pam Grier. Quentin Tarantino (Jackie Brown) retains his title as the only current film director who understands Grier’s star power. Here, she’s cast in a shameful throwaway role as a grizzled undercover cop who snarls whenever Cole approaches. Why Grier wasn’t given Tucci’s meatier role is a mystery. Her stronger presence, and more exchanges with Epps’ character, could have elevated this film beyond mediocrity.
Epps takes a slug at this brick wall of cliches, and he hits hard enough to make an impression, but there’s just no breaking through a rehashed plot. In Too Deep
