Movie Review: Waist Deep

Waist Deep (2006) 

Directed by Vondie Curis Hall 

Written by ? 

Starring Tyrese, Meagan Good, Larenz Tate, The Game 

Release Date June 23rd, 2006 

Published June 24th, 2006 

The trailers and commercials for Waist Deep give the impression of a gritty, stylish, inner city gangsta pic. Then, you find out it was directed by the same guy, Vondie Curtis Hall, who directed Mariah Carey's Glitter and much of the cool of the trailer slips away. Waist Deep is not nearly as bad as Glitter but it is nearly as vapid and overwrought with an attempt at a relevant, uplifting message that is laughably out of sync.

Brainless gunplay with a melodramatic twist, Waist Deep stars pop star Tyrese Gibson as O2 a recent parollee looking to avoid his third strike and life in prison. He has one other good reason to stay out of trouble, a six year old son named Junior (H. Hunter Hall, the directors son).

Trouble ensues for father and son when they are driving to their home in South Central Los Angeles and get carjacked. Dad is tossed out of the car while Junior is kidnapped with the car. The kidnapping was orchestrated with the aid of a street hustler named Coco (Meagan Goode) who was working on behalf of a gang kingpin named Big Meat (The Game).

Taking Coco hostage, O2 finds that Big Meat is still holding a grudge from a robbery they worked years ago in which O2 walked away with all the loot. Meat was actually the reason O2 was sent to prison the second time, for six years, but apparently that was not enough payback. He wants the money O2 took or he will kill Junior.

Now a few logical questions. Why if O2's cousin, played by the usually terrific Lorenz Tate, works for Big Meat was O2 unaware Meat still had a grudge against him? Why does O2 spend a large portion of the film pretending not to know who Big Meat is if Meat was the reason he went to prison? And why would O2 stay in Los Angeles if he knew that Big Meat was the biggest, baddest gangster in the city? Did he think a guy as crazy as Meat was going to forget a guy who ripped him off? Meat cuts guys hands off with a machete, anyone who knows him should know the guy holds grudges.

These are questions that the movie never answers. Instead, director Vondie Curtis Hall and writer Darrin Scott attempt to distract us with a convoluted series of heists, one more over the top ridiculous than the next, and a rushed, though not entirely unappealing, sex scene.

Along the way Hall and Scott attempt to give Waist Deep a social conscience. In the background of the many scenes of violence are extras who are marching for peace on the streets and more police presence in their neighborhoods. Hall and Scott seem to believe it was wildly ironic and hysterical to have a gang member beaten and kidnapped as a take back the streets rally happens in the foreground. Are they making fun of clueless protesters? No, because Hall and Scott also want the protests to be sincere and the movies anti-violence message is earnest. That is what makes the choices made in presenting these scenes so curious.

What may be most shocking about Waist Deep is the fact that it's soundtrack stinks. This may be some kind of weird stereotype but, generally speaking, urban dramas like Waist Deep have really good hip hop or hardcore rap soundtracks. That is not the case here where Ghostface Killah is the soundtracks big name, but most of the music in the film comes from Kon Artis and Terrence Blanchard and acts as a greek chorus to the action on the screen. That means that the music is as overwrought and dull witted as the film itself.

Tyrese Gibson is really far to good for such weak material. Unfortunately he is making his living on garbage like Waist Deep and his last picture Annapolis, films that fail to take full advantage of his raw intensity and presence. The guy has some real star power, as he showed in his debut film Baby Boy and last years Four Brothers, but it's muted in Waist Deep by a script that is not nearly as smart as he obviously is.

Meagan Goode is one of the most beautiful women in movies today. However, like Gibson, Goode cannot seem to choose the right movies. Breakout stardom remains just out of her grasp in low rent flicks like Deliver Us From Eva and Roll Bounce and Waist Deep is a step backward for this promising talent.

In the end, the blame for the failure of Waist Deep falls on director Vondie Curtis Hall. The actor turned director, best known for his work on TV's Chicago Hope, has an eye that aims for schmaltz and uplift when it should simply begin with story logic and maybe work it's way toward some uplifting message. There is nothing wrong with trying to be socially relevant but a film cannot simply assume relevance it must be earned through good storytelling and compelling characters, Waist Deep has neither.

Cool looking trailers are almost always a letdown and Waist Deep is yet another sad example of a trailer that is far better than the film from which it is culled. Director Vondie Curtis Hall has done little to improve his skills since Glitter. His skills in direction are good enough in terms of keeping his camera trained on the action but he has a tin ear for character development and plotting, two rather important elements in filmmaking.

Movie Review Street Kings

Street Kings (2008)

Directed by David Ayer

Written by James Ellroy, Kurt Wimmer, Jamie Moss

Starring Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, Hugh Laurie, Chris Evans, Common, The Game 

Release Date April 11th, 2008 

Published April 10th, 2008 

In her review of Street Kings Manohla Dhargis calls the film 'accidentally entertaining'.  What the hell does that mean? Were you entertained or not? It seems she was but she was embarrassed about it. No such shame for this reviewer. Street Kings is a violent, not so bright thriller that succeeds because it is so competently compelling.

Keanu Reeves, at his monotone blank slate best, stars in Street Kings as corrupt cop Tom Ludlow. As he drinks himself into stupor, Ludlow takes comfort in the fact that his corrupt behavior gets the bad guy when the system can't or won't. Thus, when we meet Tom he is busting up a group of Korean gang members, shooting and killing four and making it look like a legit bust. In the process of his crime he saved the life of a pair of missing, kidnapped twins.

The ends however do not justify the means for his ex-partner (Terry Crews) who suspects immediately the real story of Tom's 'heroism'. Thankfully for Tom he has a powerful commander (Forest Whitaker) on his side along with a cew of fellow corrupt Vice Cops willing to falsify evidence and cover his backside.

When Tom's former partner goes to internal affairs, headed up by House star Hugh Laurie, Tom is ready to punch his ticket but he gets beaten to the punch when the two are ambushed in a shady convenience store robbery. Tom survives, his partner takes 18 bullets in what is obviously more than a wrong place, wrong time incident.

The death of his partner sparks a new conscience for Tom the rogue gunfighter cop and searching for the killers brings about an awakening that is as dangerous as any case he's ever busted with his dirty cop schtick.

Street Kings was directed by David Ayer who debuted last year with the highly overrated vigilante actioner Harsh Times. That film featured an over the top performance by Christian Bale that contributed to the film's troubled tone and lack of any semblance of realism. In Street Kings, Ayer is plagued by the opposite kind of performance from Reeves, a monotone, relatively colorless performance that fails the film's emotional connectivity.

Not that Reeves' performance is not effective. In fact, this is one of the more engaged and active performances of Reeves' career. However, he simply isn't well suited to this role. Reeves' brand of earnest seriousness combined with a limited emotional range is not well suited to such a broadly emotional role.

Tom Ludlow is a vaguely racist, angry, drunken mess who kills criminals to deal with his pain and begins to feel guilty about his place in the world. The role calls for an actor who doesn't overplay the emotional extremes but unlike Reeves is not stoney eyed and inscrutable. A slightly younger Denzel Washington could have knocked this one out of the park.

That said, I don't mean to trash Reeves who I think is more talented than he is often given credit for. Yes, his limitations are well demonstrated but what he lacks in emotional demonstration he makes up for in many roles with his body language. He is a tremendous physical actor who uses his wiry frame to great effect.

In Street Kings Reeves' physicality gives him a presence that he's never had before. Adding a few pounds of muscle and a couple pounds around the midsection, Reeves communicates both his toughness and his destructive nature with his body.

The film remains hamstrung by Reeves lack of emotion but Director David Ayer still manages to make something of what he has. Using Reeves' man of action physical presence, Street Kings plays loose with the emotional stuff and becomes more of a straight action movie, heavy on bloodletting violence and light on the aftermath.

The content of Street Kings could have been something special with a more rangey actor in the lead but Reeves doesn't kill the movie. With Reeves in the lead we get a solidly crafted action flick that nails you to your seat with suspense and raises you from it with stunning acts of action movie violence. Nothing to be embarrassed about, Street Kings is a flawed, messy, yet highly entertaining old school action flick.