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'Waist Deep' sticks close to the urban action formula

By BOB TOWNSEND
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"I'll always come back for you," tough but touchy-feely ex-con O2 (Tyrese Gibson) tells his adorable young son after he's late picking him up from school. Minutes later, Junior (H. Hunter Hall) is kidnapped during a violent carjacking.

Rogue Pictures

'Waist Deep'

B-

The verdict: An urban thriller that cuts its action with schmaltz.

Director: Vondie Curtis Hall
Starring: Tyrese Gibson, Meagan Good, Larenz Tate, The Game
Run time: 101 minutes
Release date: June 23, 2006
Rating: Rated R for strong violence and pervasive language.
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That sappy sentimentality juxtaposed with plenty of gritty gangster stuff drives both the tone and the plot of "Waist Deep," an urban thriller set in the South Los Angeles underworld of gangs and guns.

Director Vondie Curtis-Hall ("Gridlock'd") sticks close to the contemporary action formula in telling the story of how O2 pulls off a series of clever heists to raise $100,000 to buy Junior back from a horrific syndicate that traffics in drugs and prostitution. But the shootouts and car chases are mixed with some decent acting and flashes of dark humor.

A TV actor turned film star and director, Curtis-Hall is a veteran of shows such as "Chicago Hope." And at its best, "Waist Deep" runs on a jaded humanity common to those kinds of prime-time dramas.

Muscled and menacing in his righteous indignation, Gibson as O2 makes a suitably sympathetic hero. With a gory gouged-out eye, Meat, played by hip-hop superstar the Game in his movie debut, is a perfectly depraved nemesis as the leader of the syndicate. O2's reluctant partner in crime (and love interest) is a hustler named Coco, played by soulful beauty Meagan Good ("You Got Served"). And Larenz Tate ("Crash") brings an ironic bite to his role as O2's lazy criminal cousin, Lucky.

Curtis-Hall casts O2 and Coco as an urban Bonnie and Clyde, and their back stories fit the existential lore of people trying to better their lives as outlaws and finding romance against the odds. Unlike edgy noir classics such as "Out of the Past" or 1949 "Bonnie and Clyde" precursor "Gun Crazy," though, "Waist Deep" lacks the essential killer instinct.

It comes closest during the final chase scene. And then Curtis-Hall refuses to pull the trigger.