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Film review

'Waist Deep' in film cliches

Waist Deep has a simple plot, but viewers are still bombarded with Hollywood conventions that telegraph where the action is going.

By PHILIP BOOTH
Published June 22, 2006

Buried inside Waist Deep's story of frantic shoot-outs and cops pursuing outlaws is a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde tale about a pair of desperate folks who use their wits to walk off with cash taken from safe-deposit boxes. That's the movie I'd like to see.

Instead, Vondie Curtis-Hall, who previously directed the Mariah Carey vehicle Glitter and urban thriller Gridlock'd, offers a film marked by Hollywood-movie road signs that are as big and as obvious as billboards.

That means it takes minutes for anyone even a little familiar with Tinseltown product to figure out the entire plot, top to bottom, of the urban drama, set in South Central Los Angeles.

For starters, any movie that gives nominal support to a group of anti-crime activists is certain to offer scenes that glorify violence. And that's true here: The filmmaker props up the action with a chopped-off hand here, a brutal beating there, point-blank executions everywhere.

The story line is pretty simple. During a carjacking, the young son of former ex-con O2 (Tyrese Gibson, Four Brothers) is inadvertently kidnapped by the man's avowed enemy, a fierce, cruel, heavily scarred gang leader named Meat (hip-hop star the Game). O2 enlists sexy street hustler Coco (Meagan Good, Roll Bounce) to help rescue the boy. Naturally, their relationship is more than platonic.

How to read some of the other brightly blinking signs:

O2, doing his best to fly right as a security guard (a parolee with a license to carry a gun?), pledges to his son, "I'll always come back for you." Meaning: Daddy will have to fulfill that promise, and more. Soon.

The weather guy on the radio is complaining about the heat wave. Plot point in the offing: Street violence ahead.

O2's pot-addled cousin, a double dealer played by Larenz Tate (Crash), is named Lucky. Want to guess his fate? (Remember the Lucky character played by Kevin Dillon in Poseidon?)

Finally, one character, whose survival would be crucial to a happy ending, appears to meet his demise. How to read this one: Even when it's over, it ain't over.

Waist Deep

Grade: C

Director: Vondie Curtis-Hall

Cast: Tyrese Gibson, Meagan Good, Larenz Tate, The Game

Screenplay: Vondie Curtis-Hall, Darin Scott and Michael Mahern

Rating: R; violence, profanity, sexual situations

Running time: 95 min.

[Last modified June 21, 2006, 09:10:05]