Waist Deep
Set during a two day-period in LA during a record hot summer, the story focuses on an ex-con nicknamed O2 (Tyrese Gibson) who has been trying to make a decent life for himself and his young son Junior (H. Hunter Hall, the son of the director) since being released on parole. The story begins when O2 is forced to leave his security job early to pick up his son from school. Mere moments later, he is jumped by a thug who drives off with his car, his son still in the back seat. With the help of a local street hustler named Coco (Meagan Good), O2 learns that the carjacking was no coincidence or accident, and that it was in fact set up by an old partner of his back when he was a criminal - a local crime kingpin named Meat (rapper The Game). There's been some bad blood between the two ever since O2 stole money from Meat, and now the kingpin wants his former friend to pay him $100,000 by the next day in order to guarantee his son's safety. In order to come up with the money, O2 will have to return to a life of crime and avoid the law, with Coco and him staging a citywide crime wave of bank heists.
What's so bizarre about Waist Deep is that it seems to be in such a rush, even though it never actually goes anywhere. Ideas and plot elements are brought forth to the viewer or introduced, and then dropped completely, or so little time is spent on them you wonder why the screenplay even bothered in the first place. As mentioned before, the story wastes no time in setting up the characters or the situations. We're thrown directly into the chaos of the film's plot, and then forced to watch the actors go through the motions as if even they don't know where the story is going. Relationships are underdeveloped and practically nonexistent in some cases. Take the strained relationship between O2 and Meat. Other than their history which serves only as a plot device, we know absolutely nothing about them, or why this Meat guy would go to such extremes to get back at him. The movie tries to show us the psychotic side of the villain in order to prove to us that he's dangerous (he chops off a man's hand in one scene), but it doesn't go deep enough into the character. He acts mainly as a menacing figure standing in the background, not a real villain. And when you consider that the final standoff between the two men lasts a whopping whole five seconds (if even that), the word "anticlimactic" doesn't even begin to describe it.
Just about every plot element is handled with the same haphazard and lazy style. One scene with O2 and Coco in a gas station seems to hint that the two are becoming celebrities in the local area due to the media attention their crime spree is supposedly getting (I say supposedly since besides one time, which actually has absolutely nothing to do with the crime spree, we see hardly any news coverage of O2's actions during the film), but once again, the film does absolutely nothing with this idea. A guy asks for their autograph, and then the movie moves onto the next scene. While watching Waist Deep, I was thinking that the intention was supposed to be somewhat of a statement on gang wars, and the way the media can make desperate heroes into folk heroes. These ideas have been explored much better in other films, and when you take that away, the movie is just a series of well-shot action sequences that serve very little point. It seems as if writers Hall and Darin Scott started to lose their nerve as the screen writing process went along, and they just didn't develop their own ideas far enough. Even that does not excuse the film's ending, which is so manipulative and false that I almost can't believe that anyone involved with this project thought it'd be a good way to end this story. It reeks of studio interference, and is about as plausible of an ending for this story as that famous "alternate ending to It's a Wonderful Life" skit on Saturday Night Live that featured George Bailey and the townspeople savagely beating Mr. Potter.
The only aspects that keep Waist Deep somewhat afloat are some strong performances and some generally well done action sequences. Tyrese Gibson's performance is one you can root for, though he doesn't forget to keep somewhat of a dark edge which relates back to his past. Despite his underwritten relationships with his son and love interest Coco, there are some fleeting and surprisingly sweet moments between them that ring true. Meagan Good in particular gets a few choice scenes as a down-on-her-luck hustler whose sassy and smart attitude hides the pain of her entire life. It may be cliched, but hey, so is just about everything else in this film, and at least Good is able to bring some well-needed emotion when the movie slows down long enough for her to display some. The entire supporting cast outside of the three main characters are completely disposable, and the script seems to know it, since they usually exit the movie after their introduction scene in one way or another. As for recording artist The Game in his big screen debut, despite the fact he's been given the role of the main villain, he has surprisingly little at all to do, and even exits the movie long before its time for the end credits. Whoever told him this would be a good role to start his film career should be made to see the error of his ways.
Waist Deep wants to be a gritty drama about revenge and gang wars, but it's too soft for its own subject matter. Long before the film's ending has betrayed its very ideals, we lose interest because the movie itself doesn't seem interested in its own ideas. With a running time that barely stretches past 90 minutes, you get the sense that there used to be a lot more to this movie that got left on the cutting room floor. Whether or not the added footage would help the film is a personal call. Whatever the case, the end result is that the movie just doesn't take any chances whatsoever, and the fact that it's being released amongst the summer blockbusters is a clear sign that the studio no longer cares about the product, and just threw it out into the cinemas in the hopes it can have at least one semi-decent weekend. When all is said and done, there's just not a lot to notice here.
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