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Review: Just because an undercover cop secretly wears a badge, it doesn't put him above the law. That's the crux of ``In Too Deep.'' If it doesn't bring anything new to the police-thriller genre, the movie showcases sharp performances in its tale of an officer who starts to identify a little too closely with his thuggish alter ego.

Omar Epps plays a detective known as Jeffrey Cole to his colleagues, but as J. Reid on the Cincinnati streets where he poses as a drug dealer fresh in from Akron. Little by little, Cole nears his quarry, city crime lord Dwayne Gittens (LL Cool J), who goes by the nickname God. That may be because Gittens has a knack for controlling every aspect of his underlings' existence — their homes, their incomes, their lives.

``In Too Deep'' shows how Cole wins Gittens' confidence, ironically fabricating the sort of friendship that will put him close enough to betray the mobster. We follow Cole as he's initiated on the proving grounds of urban masculinity — whether at a neighborhood boxing ring or a bleak alley, where his loyalty is tested with an order to shoot an enemy of Gittens.

Stanley Tucci plays Cole's commanding officer, Preston, who understands the Jekyll/Hyde perils of undercover work, and urges his subordinate to bury his own personal feelings behind the made-up persona of J. Reid. As Cole puts it, ``What are you saying? Act more?''

``No,'' Preston responds, ``care less.''

While director Michael Rymer fills his movie with tense confrontations in drug dens and a gruesome torture scene in a pool hall, the movie hinges on the relationship between Epps and LL Cool J's characters. Epps turns in a reliably vivid performance, but it's the singer-turned-actor who's the revelation, presenting a complete departure from his comic-relief role in ``Deep Blue Sea.'' He plays Gittens as the sort of fellow who makes sure every man and child has a free meal on Thanksgiving, but doesn't hesitate to brutalize the godfather of his own child at the first suspicion of disloyalty. The actor offers us a monster whose charm makes him all the scarier. He and Epps create a convincing, dangerous friendship of such intensity you understand Cole's confusion when the time comes to assert his genuine loyalties.

The film's biggest disappointment is some wasted opportunities for its actresses, trotting out Nia Long as Epps' partner in a stale romantic subplot, and giving Pam Grier, as a surveillance officer, too little to do. For the record, Atlanta music producer/performer Jermaine Dupri has a small role as a fellow who winds up in the bad graces of Gittens' gang.

— Steve Murray, Cox News Service

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