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Review #163 of 365
Film: Waist Deep [R] 97 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $ 9.00
Where Viewed: AMC Loews Meridian 16 Seattle, WA
When 1st Seen: 24 June 2006
Time: 9:45 p.m.
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DVD | soundtrack |
Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
The preview for Waist Deep, the new Tyrese 'Annapolis' Gibson / Meagan 'Roll Bounce' Good film directed by Vondie 'Soul Food' Curtis-Hall with music by Kon Artis and Terence Blanchard, made it look like a modern day, African-American Bonnie and Clyde with a beat. In fact, there's a point in the film when a gas station attendent asks Good's character, Coco, for her autograph and mentions she's like the new Bonnie and Clyde to reinforce that theme. In fact, the preview makes the film look a lot better than it turns out to be. Really, with some script adjustments and toning down of the absolutely brutal, video-game-land violence, the film would have had more appeal and artistic merit. The first script adjustment needed was how the whole story gets started. We have a recently paroled after being in state prison in California for six years now in a special program for ex cons where they are placed in jobs as security guards whose cousin fails to pick up his son from school leaving him to need to leave the job early and go to pick him up before he's put out on the street. Shortly after picking up Otis Jr., Otis Sr. or O2 as he's known in his former gang circles is distracted just long enough by the lovely traveling suit saleslade, Coco, that he gets car jacked with his son in the back seat in a very back area of South Central LA just a few blocks away. . No, this isn't a sequel to Freedomland. He chases down his car, and ends up in the middle of a street intersection shootout with rival gang members. After killing a couple of dudes, he runs off again after his car and kid, tags the guy in the shoulder and keep running. Unfortunately, the car gets away. See any flaws? (1) How does a scrawny guy with a pistol force a huge guy like Tyrese Gibson out of the car, onto the street, and speed away without a bigger fight out of Tyrese? Moreover, O2 has a gun, but fails to use it against the car-jacker? (2) Despite his near Herculean efforts to run after the car, he does not seem to realize that a bullet will travel much faster than he can run.
"…a mid-summer escapist film that delivers more desperation than thrills."
So, why does he not shoot the tires of the car? His accuracy is so good he grazes the driver at one point, but a tire is much bigger, there are two to choose from, and that is much more likely to disable the get away than shooting at the driver who could then crash the car with his kid in the back? So, those are pretty big flaws. Turns out, though that Junior was what they were after not the car. So flaw (3) how'd they know that he'd be there to car-jack? Well, supposedly, O2 has $100K somewhere, and the king pin of his former gang, the one who got him hooked into the gang, and the one for whom he took the fall that landed him in prison in the first place, now wants the $100K and the kid is his insurance policy. So, Coco and O2 team up to get her free from her servitude as a prostitute for a gang leader called Pete Money, and Junior back from the clutches of the brutal gang lord known as Meat (played mercilessly by The Game). As their plan to pit the rival gang leaders against each other by staging jobs against each that will be pinned on the other ultimately so they can steal the $100K bounty on Junior's head, they become emboldened to stage bank robberies of Pete Money's safety deposit boxes and set themselves up will for the future—oh, and they fall in love along the way. Well, if you thought that was convoluted, prepare for more improbability and far-fetched activity leading up to the inevitable confrontation between O2 and Meat to get back Otis Jr. and the events that follow.
So, plot problems abound, occasionally character motivation issues arise too. Mr. Curtis-Hall has done a good job of creating a fast-paced film, but the characters are not as compelling as they could have been had we been given more to help understand their motivations and justify their actions which are often very brutal and unnecessarily violent. The film has a very good ending, maybe a bit too contrived, but good. Overall, Waist Deep is not a great movie. It could be categorized as a mid-summer escapist film that delivers more desperation than thrills. If I had but one wish for the film it would have been that more time be spent really figuring out a better opening sequence that caused the same plot to unfurl, for I know that would have helped. Short of that, sadly, the film got off on the wrong foot, and it was unsteady ever after.
So, plot problems abound, occasionally character motivation issues arise too. Mr. Curtis-Hall has done a good job of creating a fast-paced film, but the characters are not as compelling as they could have been had we been given more to help understand their motivations and justify their actions which are often very brutal and unnecessarily violent. The film has a very good ending, maybe a bit too contrived, but good. Overall, Waist Deep is not a great movie. It could be categorized as a mid-summer escapist film that delivers more desperation than thrills. If I had but one wish for the film it would have been that more time be spent really figuring out a better opening sequence that caused the same plot to unfurl, for I know that would have helped. Short of that, sadly, the film got off on the wrong foot, and it was unsteady ever after.
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Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
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Waist Deep (Widescreen Version) [DVD](2006) DVD
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Review-lite [150-word cap]
The preview for Waist Deep, the new Tyrese 'Annapolis' Gibson / Meagan 'Roll Bounce' Good film directed by Vondie 'Soul Food' Curtis-Hall with music by Kon Artis and Terence Blanchard, made it look like a modern day, African-American Bonnie and Clyde with a beat. Unfortunately, plot problems abound and character motivation issues arise too. Mr. Curtis-Hall has done a good job of creating a fast-paced film, but the characters are not as compelling as they could have been had we been given more to help understand their motivations and justify their very brutal and unnecessarily violent actions. Overall, Waist Deep could be categorized as a mid-summer escapist film that delivers more desperation than thrills.
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