Ambushed

AN ACTION FLICK WITH A TWIST...
Courtney Vance plays the role of the only black cop on a southern, all white, good ole boy police department. Virginia Madsen plays the only female cop on that same force. They are simpatico with each other, as both are treated in the way one might expect someone of their race and gender to be treated by bigoted sexists and racists, covert though it may be. Although, it is actually not all that covert.

Then, the head of the local Klu Klux Klan gets murdered one night, leaving his son as a living eye witness to his father's murder. All hell breaks loose, as another witness says that the murder was commited by two black men, identified to be the leaders of a militant black group. When the police find the boy, they discover that the apple did not fall far from the tree, as he is a dyed in the wool racist, spouting racial investives at Vance, who remains remarkable calm in the face of being grossly insulted by a twelve year old pipsqueak who idolizes Hitler.

When the black militants...

Miscasting ambushes this action flick!
Ambushed (1998) A terrific supporting cast can't make up for a miscast star in this racially charged action drama. Courtney B. Vance is supposed to be playing a tough but fair cop who gets mixed up in a huge white supremacist conspiracy while trying to protect the son of a murdered KKK leader. But Mr. Vance is far too soft and sensitive for this role, no matter how many guns director Ernest Dickerson has him fire. Other than Vance, everyone else is right at home, including William Forsythe (Direct Hit), Robert Patrick (TV's The Unit), Virginia Madsen (The Haunting in Connecticut), William Sadler (Die Hard 2), David Keith (An Officer and a Gentleman), and the late Charles Hallahan (The Thing '82),to whom the film is dedicated. Also of note are the performances of lesser known but very effective Scott Simpson (New Best Friend), J. Michael Hunter (New Best Friend), and William Flaman as the henchmen of villainous Patrick. This would have been a terrific vehicle for Wesley Snipes; as it...

unlikely allies on the run
Given what it is, this HBO TVM has a screenplay a notch above the usual neanderthal level of most in the action genre, and strong direction by Ernest Dickerson. The subject matter of white supremacy is a generally unpalatable one, since the people presented as pro are inevitably cartoons, even within the limitations of the genre. This treatment is defined by the re-politicalising of the son of the KKK's Grand Dragon, who is the only witness to his father's killing, which is falsely blamed on black cop Courtney Vance. The plot then becomes a multiple pursuit of the boy who has fled with Vance after the titular ambush has aligned them, by both the law and the KKK. The condition is therefore set for the boy to realise the error of his abstracted prejudice, by having Vance demonstrating kindness (by trying to save his life) of an individual. However Vance's performance works against this idea, since he doesn't have a likeable persona. This charge may make me vulnerable to the accusation...

Click to Editorial Reviews