Back before he put on the kneepads for Keanu: "Deep Cover"

Have you ever wondered exactly when Larry Fishburne decided to go by Laurence? Wonder no more. Here's the last movie before the working man's moniker gave way to Mr. Fancy Pants.

I'm not sure I ever heard of this movie before it popped up on cable recently. That makes sense since it came out in 1992 -- part of that late 1991-early 1995 blackout when I was in college and noticed only the watershed films, i.e. "Pulp Fiction," "Clerks" and "Miracle Beach." (All together now ... "Don't tell me you give the world's greatest MASS-age ... ") While Larry's next movie apparently warranted the upper-crust name change -- he played Ike Turner in "What's Love Got to Do With It?" -- his performance here is plenty solid, as is the movie overall.

Fishburne plays the son of a drug-addict dad who gets killed with Larry is a lad. That leads Larry to become a cop in Cincinnati, and he gets recruited to go undercover for the DEA in L.A. The recruitment scene is entertaining, as we see Charles Martin Smith ("The Untouchables") branch out from his usual nebbish role to add a little edge. One amusing exchange later in the movie: Larry: "You ever kill anybody?" Charlie: "Are you kidding? I went to Princeton to avoid all that sh!t."

As you might expect, Larry eventually gets in too deep, having a hard time keeping his eyes on the prize as bad stuff happens all around him, from the deadbeat mom next door to the lower-level pushers getting whacked to the whole getting caught up in the criminal life thing. Along the way, he joins up with Jeff Goldblum -- also apparently branching out from the geeky thing to play a drug-dealing lawyer. The only other remotely recognizable guys are Clarence "The Mod Squad" Williams III as a cop and Gregory "Barney Miller/Miami Vice" Sierra as a middleman in the drug chain.

For the most part, this is a simple story, which is nice because it allows us to focus on the characters and actors. Nobody's winning any Oscars, I admit, but it's a decent little movie. Bonus points for being directed by Bill Duke, one of the great "that guy" club members whom you may know as Mac from "Predator."

As for the performances, Goldblum is amusing, Williams is noble enough and Sierra is kind of fun. And I did think Fishburne was pretty good, even if it was a shock to see him looking so trim. Seriously, has this guy ballooned or what? I'm beginning to think the answer to "What is the Matrix?" is "A new $7.99 buffet at Denny's."