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Waist Deep
R1 - America - Universal Pictures Review written by and copyright: Stevie McCleary & Noor Razzak (1st November 2006). |
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The Film
 When I heard that Vondie Curtis-Hall -the director of "Glitter" (2001) -had made a film called "Waist Deep", I began having horrid ideas of Mariah Carey in some badly acted sexcapade. The good news is, I couldn't have been further from the truth. The bad news is, I still had to watch "Waist Deep". The plot is simple: The main character, an ex-con played by Tyrese Gibson, has his son kidnapped, so he's gotta get the cash together to pay off an old rival (The Game) to get him back. He does this by robbing banks and squatting in someone else's home. Along the way he deals with his useless cousin (Larenz Tate) and a hustler he picks off the street that he eventually falls for (Meagan Good). Let's call a spade a spade. This movie is not very exciting. It is not very good. The most interesting part of the movie for me was the character's names. Gibson's character is called O2. Not that they really ever call him that because after they explain it, even the characters seem to realize how dumb it is. See, he used to disappear and move so fast when doing…stuff…that he was called Oxygen. Then, he got even better. So they doubled it. O2. Yup. He even calls his son (Henry Hunter Hall) Junior. Whether that's Oxygen Junior or O2 Junior, we don't know. His cousin's name is Lucky, which makes sense. He should have forgotten to stop breathing by now, he's so dumb. And beautifully, his deadly rival is called Meat. I think I saw him eating meat at one point, I dunno. The plot is just so interesting due to it being so bizarre. O2 is a security guard who needs to pick up his son from school and so he ditches work. But he takes the gun with him…so nobody else takes it. Or something to that effect. He tells everyone that he was going to take it back right after grabbing Junior because he has two strikes against him. One more conviction and it's off to jail, regardless of the level of the crime. Of course, he explains this soon after he shoots dead two men in broad daylight…with his gun. Yes, because the cops will never be able to match up the bullets to an ex-con's security gun. And that's another thing. He claims he has that job because it's an "ex-con rehabilitation programme." Because when I think "perfect job for ex-cons", I think "armed security guard." Naturally, when he bypasses the security code when they break into a nice home to stay in, he says they taught him that in guard training. And we wonder why America is so troubled. The rest of the story fumbles along. The director uses many dark shots and confusing choices for transitions, along with jarring cuts for flashbacks. In the final gunfight it is impossible to work out what is happening, or who is being shot, due to the closeness of the camera and blurry filming. You get the feeling that he has a basic idea about filmmaking and makes it up from there. While this is not a terrible movie, it's also not very good. It looks impressive enough at times, with good production values, but no real depth given to anything that happens. Not one of the characters was endearing to me. The only real enjoyment I got from this film was waiting to see whether they squeeze the title of the film anywhere. They do, fifteen minutes before the end. The worst part of the film was the intrusive rap music in-between each scene change. Each one ran for far too long, obviously trying to get the most out of the lyrics of the songs. Watch this film only if really bored. You'll be asleep in no time.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1 this anamorphic transfer is quite good, the image is presented here in all its saturated glory. The colors are true to that style with muted tones and deeper browns and blacks. Night scenes presented some film grain but otherwise this was a decent effort that did not feature any major problems such as edge-enhancement, compression artefacts or any damage which should be the norm for such a recent DVD release.
Audio
A single English Dolby Digital 5.1 track is included for this release and the result is quite an aggressive number. The dialogue is clear and distortion free while the action, effects and music blare through all the 5.1 channels with enough ferocity it'll shake anything loose sitting around your speakers. I did however find the music somewhat intrusive and loud but that was all part of the style of the film and not something to blame on the sound mix quality. Optional subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired, French and Spanish.
Extras
Universal have released this film with a collection of extras that include some deleted scenes, two featurettes, a music video plus a handful of bonus trailers. Below is a closer look at these supplements. First up are a series of deleted scenes, these can be viewed individually or with a 'play all' function. The scenes included are: - "Detectives Go Pay O2 A Visit For Parole Violation" which runs for 1 minute 7 seconds and features the first of a series of deleted sub-plots that followed two detectives on the trail of O2. This scenes sees them cruising the streets to O2's house but are spotted early by O2 and Coco who elude them. - "O2 And Coco Drive, O2 Calls Lucky" which runs for 41 seconds, as they drive through the streets a radio news segment can be heard about the mayor calling on a war against street gangs, O2 is annoyed when Coco lights up a cigarette in the car. - "Original Bank Robbery Montage With Police Detectives" runs for 1 minute 43 seconds and sees the detectives looking over the surveillance footage for clues on who these robbers are. - "Original Cut - Burma/Police Station Lift" runs for 5 minutes, Coco tells O2 about her dream to travel the world and he quizzes her on Burma, she also tells him of a place in Mexico she wants to go. Later the detectives go over some leads. - "The Dock" runs for 1 minute 6 seconds as the detectives dredge the docks and find a body in the water. - "Outtakes 1" runs for 1 minute 59 seconds and features footage of Coco arguing with the bank manager in this incredibly annoying sequence. - "Outtakes 2" runs for 1 minute 23 seconds and sees O2 arguing with the gas station attendant. Next up is a featurette entitled "Analysis of a Scene" which runs for 4 minutes 57 seconds and takes a look at the car jacking scene and how it was split into two parts, before the jacking and after. The camera styles differ in these two parts and the filmmakers tell us who they shot the sequence, the stunts, storyboarding and general approach they took while shooting this key sequence in the film. The second featurette is entitled "Drive By Filmmaking" and runs for 7 minutes 43 seconds, in this clip we get a look at the cars used in the film as they are treated as characters, we also get a look at the shooting of the high energy chase sequence and the use of a car rig called a 'go mobile' that allows the actors to be behind the wheel of a car instead of a stunt driver. A music video entitled "Bad Girl" is also included which runs for 3 minutes 39 seconds and is by Black Buddafly featuring Fabolous (yes that's spelt correctly). Rounding out the extras are a series of bonus trailers for: - "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" which runs for 38 seconds. - "Slither" which runs for 31 seconds. - "Scarface: Platinum Edition" which runs for 50 seconds. - "Fearless" which runs for 2 minutes 5 seconds. As far as the extras are concerned this is a fairly thin effort, no commentary by filmmakers and the featurettes just barely skimmed the surface. I suppose if this film was a bigger hit the extras would have been a fair bit more plentiful.
Packaging
This disc is packaged in an amaray case that is housed in a cardboard slip-case.
Overall
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