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WAIST DEEP
The South Central misadventures of Bonnie and Clyde
PopcornReel.com Film Review: "Waist Deep"
By Omar P.L. Moore/June 23, 2006
If you lost your son, how would you get him back?
What would you do? How high must the stakes be? "Waist Deep" tries
to answer, and successfully answers these questions. The overall film
however, is not as good as it could have been.
"Waist Deep" threatens to refer to characters being
that deep in blood, but thankfully Vondie Curtis-Hall tones down the graphic
violence in the film's second half and we come to understand the meaning of the
title by the film's end. Though the film is essentially a standard action
drama involving urban strife ala "Menace II Society" or "Boyz N The Hood"
(though neither as good as those films), there are unexpected moments of humor,
emotion and romance. Most noteworthy in the acting department are Tyrese
Gibson and Meagan Good as O2 (Otis) and Coco respectively. Their chemistry
grows quickly in a film that takes place over roughly seventy-two hours in Los
Angeles. Together they as one character remarks in a moment of unexpected
comic timing, are a "new modern-day Bonnie and Clyde." This aspect of
"Waist Deep" -- Mr. Gibson and Ms. Good's rapport -- and little else, is the
most entertaining aspect of "Waist Deep". There is also good chemistry
between Mr. Gibson (who was memorable in John Singleton's "Baby Boy") and H.
Hunter Hall (who plays Otis' son in Mr. Curtis-Hall's new film.) The
tightly-edited (by Terilyn Shropshire) time-line of "Waist Deep" helps its cause
a little, but at the end of the day not quite enough, as a lack of depth of some
areas rears its ugly head in the story, as does the wretched "n"-word that
becomes a soundtrack of dialogue of the characters throughout.
Mr. Gibson scowls and has no time to smile in this film; after
all, his character is in intense pursuit of his son Otis Junior (Mr. Hall), and
as a father he will do anything to get him back safely. Otis is in the
first month of his parole after six years in prison for committing crimes on
behalf of Big Meat (rapper The Game) a hyper violent, multi-tattooed killing
machine. Big Meat is no game, folks -- he's not playing around -- as he
conclusively and graphically shows one henchman what happens when you "don't pay
your taxes." Hint: it involves a machete (see third picture above.)
Otis, a South Central Los Angeles resident who has been working as a security
guard at a local supermarket, has two strikes against him in California's penal
system and is doing all he can to avoid getting a third strike and going away
for good.
Otis however, pulls out all the illegal stops in the process of trying to get
Julian. He has barely 48 hours to come up with $100,000 for Big Meat, or
Junior will share the same fate that befell the henchman. To help Otis is
his cousin Lucky (Larenz Tate), who has not been there when it counts for Otis
in the past, but dearly loves Julian and is committed to getting his cousin's
son back. Lucky is part of Big Meat's team however, and we are not always
sure if Lucky will come through. Mr. Tate is an accomplished actor and
never looked a powerful or as scary as he burst onto the scene in 1993 in
"Menace II Society". Here he is a pale, worn replica of that character.
A word of advice to Mr. Tate: your film characters should try to stay alive for
just a little longer. Mr. Tate does appear in a painfully ironic scene in
the film: he is victimized just at the time a rally by concerned residents
against violence that has ravaged the neighborhood streets occurs. This
scene could have been a cheap, trivial one, but it works here to good (and sad)
effect.
ne of the more unfortunate aspects of Mr. Curtis-Hall's film however, showcases
Ms. Good enthusing her Coco character with street ghetto routines (especially in
bank heist scenes) that don't show intelligence but only caricature and
reinforcement of the stereotypes that have hurt those in poorer Black
communities in America. Some of those in the audience loved and laughed at
these moments, but sadly such acting displays replace great opportunities to
come up with ingenuity and fresh, original material. Granted this is a
film, and like so many thousands of others before it, requires a substantial
suspension of disbelief, but Mr. Curtis-Hall, who co-wrote the screenplay with
Darin Scott based on Michael Mahern's story, can do better. In fact, he
has done better -- directing a solid film several years ago called "Grid'lock'd",
which starred the late Tupac Shakur (in one of his last film roles) and Tim
Roth. The chemistry in that film, plus its story, was strong and
convincing in more areas than here. In "Waist Deep", we care about one,
well, two, things: whether Junior is back in the arms of his father, and whether
or not Lazarus rises from the dead. This second factor may not make much
sense if you read this before you saw "Waist Deep", but after the trials and
tribulations that the characters go through, many audiences will feel that this
film has a brighter conclusion than most of its genre's predecessors.
"Waist Deep" opens today -- it has a running time of approximately 94 minutes
and contains strong graphic violence and pervasive language. It is rated
R.
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