MCJ Homepage
Arts and Entertainment
Film Noir Review
DVD Review
Gruesome ghetto gangsta‚ “Waist Deep” flick out on DVD
by Kam Williams
Recently-paroled O2 (Tyrese) is looking forward to spending some quality time with his son, Junior (Henry Hunter Hall), after finishing up a six-year prison sentence for dealing drugs. But while cruising the ’hood, their short-lived reunion ends when his classic convertible is carjacked by some creeps who drive off with the boy in the back seat.
Luckily, the thieves leave behind Coco (Meagan Good), a sexy confidant who helped set up the robbery. And better yet, Coco is the proverbial prostitute with the heart of gold. The Sunset Strip ‘ho’ immediately spills the beans and decides to switch allegiances in order to help rescue Junior from the clutches of Meat (“The Game”), her bloodthirsty boss.
This is easier said than done, because the mobster wants $100,000 ransom, and gives O2 only one day to come up with the cash. Rather than report the crime to the LAPD, the pair proceeds to embark on a crime spree of their own, robbing banks and illicit businesses located in the ghetto, behaving like a latter-day Bonnie and Clyde.
This is the preposterous premise of “Waist Deep,” the most mind-bogglingly bad, blaxploitation flick in recent memory. From its excessive use of profanities and the ethnic slurs to its sadistic celebration of gratuitous gore to its Swiss cheese script riddled with an array of utterly illogical plot developments, the picture is not so much a movie as a 90-minute loop of a brainless gangsta‚ rap video. An unapologetic tribute to misogyny, bling, gratuitous violence, and Black-on-Black crime. Next time, I hope Juilliard-trained, writer/director Vondie Curtis-Hall cracks open his brain and uses it. A big payday is the only explanation I can think of for his foisting such an absurd, insult to the intelligence on the unsuspecting public. “Waist Deep?” A waste of time. Poor (0 stars).
