Dangerous Ground
An odd combination of consciousness-raising and run-of-the-mill action,Dangerous Groundfeatures Ice Cube, mostly unbelievably, as a one-time  South African native named Vusi. Vusi came to America at age 14 to escape  police repression, and eventually reinvented himself as an American scholar  and community-oriented volunteer. Called back to the old country to bury his  father, Vusi discovers the new South Africa under Mandela, but also gets a  snootful of the nation's surge in crime and drug usage. Sent to Johannesburg  to retrieve a long-missing brother, Vusi allies himself with a coke-addicted stripper (Elizabeth Hurley) who knows the vanished man. The script and  direction by Darrell James Roodt (Cry, the Beloved Country) seems to be  serving various masters: viewers interested in epochal changes in South  Africa, and viewers who want to kick back and watch a suspense movie about  drugs, a hooker, and a nasty crime lord (Ving Rhames). The result is unwieldy,  and Cube's thumping performance doesn't do much to bridge the gap.--Tom Keogh