Waist Deep

[StevePulaski]

Waist Deep (2006)
Directed by: Vondie Curtis-Hall

Meagan Good and Tyrese Gibson are a "Modern Day Bonnie & Clyde" in Waist Deep.

Rating: ★★½

In the modern day, Tyrese Gibson doesn't get enough credit for the Renaissance Man he is. He's been able to balance a wildly successful career as an R&B superstar, movie-star, screenwriter, and bestselling author for four decades now, and even in films where he's not the focal point (see most Fast and the Furious films), he brings a swaggering charisma that often steals the show. It's more understated roles such as John Singleton's underrated Baby Boy where his depth as an actor are often shown, but even in ostensibly throwaway action flicks such as Waist Deep, he finds a way to impress.

Here, Gibson plays Otis Samuel, known better as "O2," for his ability to vanish in broad daylight like oxygen. An ex-con now committed to raising his young son "Junior" (Henry Hunter Hall) after his baby mama kicked rocks, he's cruising down the streets of Southland with his son in tow when he's carjacked at gunpoint, his son still in the car. Prior to that, he was distracted by a hooker named Coco (Meagan Good) soliciting suits on the street, and in a fit of rage and desperation, implores her to help him retrieve his son. Coco tells him the men who stole his car, and his son, are henchmen for "Big Meat" (played by West Coast rapper The Game), a ruthless mob boss known for getting busy on disloyal subjects with a machete. Just when he was trying to get on the straight and narrow, O2 is thrust back into a life of crime, now with Coco by his side, as the two devise a Bonnie & Clyde-style plan of holding up local banks and cleaning out safety deposit boxes in order to garner the $100,000 Big Meat demands for the safe return of Junior. Also in the mix is O2's cousin Lucky (Larenz Tate), whose nickname, we learn, might've been relevant at one point, but that time has long passed.

Gibson's performance is predicated on physicality and urgency, two traits he's demonstrated thoughtfully over his now 20+ year acting career. Even at his most violent, there's an underlying tenderness in his eyes. A biting feeling of regret that he cannot believe he's resorted back to this particular life. Vondie Curtis-Hall — a career actor and TV director who makes his second theatrical feature with Waist Deep following the ignominious Mariah Carey vehicle Glitter in 2001 — brings out the ideal balance in Gibson's O2 along with Meagan Good as the perfect complementary piece. The two's chemistry builds thoughtfully, and during the bank robbery scenes, we see two desperate individuals who all of a sudden are relying on one another for a common goal. Some of the film's most memorable sequences are outside of the camaraderie and exist when the two are by themselves, counting their soon-to-be-sacrificed riches in a lavish home in which they broke in or staging elaborate robberies while avoiding the cops in the process. Above all the mayhem, there's a quietness to both characters, who, at the end of the day, show that trying to stay out of trouble doesn't guarantee trouble won't find them.

Waist Deep suffers from the predictable problem of action films of the new millennium, where a barrage of shots running three seconds or less are cobbled together and fatigue takes no time to fester in the viewer's mind. Curtis-Hall and co-writer Darin Scott remain wise to keep the end-goal for the characters in mind, therein inviting an emotionally potent angle that keeps the film grounded with some semblance of humanity — not to mention, the relatable human emotion of despair. With Gibson and Good as anchors and personalities, Waist Deep nobly gets by on this fundamental and mostly overcome less-than-perfect action filmmaking.

Starring: Tyrese Gibson, Meagan Good, Larenz Tate, Henry Hunter Hall, and The Game. Directed by: Vondie Curtis-Hall.