The cast just about escapes with its dignity after this derivative, predictable urban thriller.
Waist Deep (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:76
Fresh:20
Rotten:56
Average Rating:4.3/10
Consensus: A well-meaning B-movie that suffers from a cliche-ridden script and poorly drawn characters that fail to inspire much sympathy.
Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for strong violence and pervasive language.
Runtime: 1 hr 37 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Theatrical Release:03-11-2006
Synopsis: This sun scorched, bullet-blasted South Central L.A. story follows the car- and corpse-strewn trail of an ex-con turned security guard O2 (Tyrese Gibson), who gets carjacked while his son is still... This sun scorched, bullet-blasted South Central L.A. story follows the car- and corpse-strewn trail of an ex-con turned security guard O2 (Tyrese Gibson), who gets carjacked while his son is still asleep in the backseat. The thugs hold the child for ransom, and O2 has 48 hours to come up with a hundred grand. His only lead in getting the kid back is Coco (Meagan Good) the cutie who distracted him at the traffic light. Together they bicker, fall in love, and launch a plan to take down a vicious gang leader named Meat (The Game) while they roll along on a bank-robbing spree. Director Vondie Curtis-Hall keeps the action humming and swathes his gritty South Central locations in a thick haze of urban grime and chaotic spontaneity, making it reminiscent of 1970s cult classics like BLACK CAESAR and THE WARRIORS. Tyrese is more than up for the job here as the tough but tender O2; he and the very sexy Meagan Good generate major onscreen chemistry. Larenz Tate plays O2's dope-head cousin, and Kimora Lee Simmons has a funny cameo as a fencer of hot designer dresses. Her husband, Russell Simmons, was one of the producers. [More]
Starring: Game, Tyrese Gibson, Paul Terrel Clayton, Meagan Good
Starring: Game, Tyrese Gibson, Paul Terrel Clayton, Meagan Good, Eric Lane
Director: Vondie Curtis-Hall
Director: Vondie Curtis-Hall
Producer: Ted Field, Preston L. Holmes
Composer: Terence Blanchard
Studio: Focus Features
Reviews for Waist Deep
From its non-committal title downwards -- we’re a bit worse than ankle deep, but not quite neck deep -- the film includes a final shot that is almost surreal in its implausibility. Waist Deep? More like Deep Waste.
The worst is saved for last: just when you think the movie has shown the courage of its 'gritty' convictions, it hits you with schmaltz that would shame a Hallmark card.
The camerawork is jerky and distracting, the dialogue is cliched and the story makes so little sense that the script seems to have been improvised by the actors as they went along.
Marred by absurd plot digressions and choppy, sloppy and incoherent shaky-camera action sequences.
Waist Deep is just another one of those middle-of-the-road action flicks.
For all helmer Vondie Curtis Hall's aspirations to grittiness, his script (co-written by Darin Scott) is mired in a violent fantasy L.A. where the stereotypes fly almost as fast as the bullets.
Vondie Curtis Hall helmed Gridlock'd, a low-budget buddy thriller starring Tupac Shakur and Tim Roth, with nary a rote moment. This is not the case with Waist Deep, a big-budget thriller with nary an original moment.
A mean and depressing B-movie in which there's no one to root for or even care about.
If the daydreams of a teenager playing Grand Theft Auto could be made into a music video, the result would resemble Waist Deep.
The efforts of Waist Deep to make some meaningful social commentary about street gangs and the vicious circle in which African-American men often find themselves seem like an afterthought, rather than anything remotely sincere.
I could almost recommend this action movie as an entertaining ride, but I wouldn't pay theater-price to see it.
[Hall] undermines the early style and intelligence of his all-black action movie, taking audiences for the wrong kind of ride in the end.
If only director Vondie Curtis Hall were content with making a lean, mean action thriller, as he and his film soon find themselves waist deep and in over their head in pretentious ambition.
A movie that is cheerfully, indiscriminately violent, exploiting exactly the same viciously cyclical culture on which it pretends to be providing trenchant commentary.
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