Waist Deep Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Waist Deep Blu-ray Movie Review

Bargain pricing can't save this third-tier urban drama's mediocre Blu-ray release...

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown February 23, 2011

There was a moment, an all-too-brief moment, when I thought writer/director Vondie Curtis-Hall's Waist Deep might actually lure me in. Having shrugged off the relatively wooden performance of its youngest actor (knowing full well the poor boy was going to go missing within the first ten minutes of the film), I was taken by the unexpected ferocity, intensity and desperate rage that poured out of Tyrese Gibson as he chased a group of car thieves who had inadvertently kidnapped his son, sleeping soundly in the back seat. Sadly, it was all downhill from there. A sharp, sudden decline in quality and credibility was fast on Gibson's heels; a sudden plunge in authenticity a less gullible filmfan would have seen coming a mile away. In aiming for Wire-level realism, Waist Deep edges closer and closer to genre parody, falling victim to any and every gangsta-rap convention packing a gat and an N-bomb.

Otis may be waist deep, but Curtis-Hall is in over his head...

Otis... ahem, "O2" (Tyrese Gibson, Transformers: Dark of the Moon) is determined to walk the straight and narrow. Having served a tough six-year stint in prison, O2 rejoins society, desperate to stay clear of trouble, hold down a legitimate 9-to-5 job and be a stable father to his young son, Junior (Henry Hunter Hall). But when a gang of car-jackers steal his Chevy Impala, he grabs a gun, gives chase and quickly reverts to his old ways. Over a car? Hardly. It turns out Junior was napping in the back seat. Now, to get his son back, O2 has to find a way to scrape together $100,000 in twenty-four hours to pay off a crime lord named Big Meat (Jayceon "The Game" Taylor, Street Kings), all while dodging the police, wrestling information out of his shifty cousin Lucky (Larenz Tate, Rescue Me), robbing a string of high-security banks and convincing the car-jackers' feisty accomplice -- O2's would-be love interest, Coco (Meagan Good, The Unborn) -- to flip sides and join his cause.

As unexpectedly magnetic as Gibson's O2 may be (at least initially), Curtis-Hall populates his urban redemption fantasy with so many one-dimensional thugs and fatally flawed Samaritans that it doesn't leave Gibson much room to maneuver. Tate, a highlight of Rescue Me's tight ensemble cast, wrestles with his conscious convincingly, but isn't afforded the depth or introspection necessary to make Lucky anything more than a two-bit hustler with a soft spot for family. Taylor, all tattoos, muscle and rage, snarls and spits on command but, like his castmates, isn't given much of anything to work with. Curtis-Hall is more interested in manufacturing a maniacal, limb-hacking movie monster than crafting a viable projects antagonist, and any drama that might naturally develop suffers accordingly. Meat's army of shirtless red-shirts are no better. Oh they stare eerily, lift their guns menacingly, and jump the second Meat barks an order, but every one of them is part of the set dressing, nothing more. Even Good, a decent actress in her own right, withers long before she and Gibson forge the unlikely partnership that commandeers what began as a film about a father willing to go to any extreme to save his son.

Generic genre scripts and hit-or-miss performances aren't the only thing standing in O2's way though. Waist Deep's middle stretch tumbles off the beaten path, tossing in a slew of improbable cash grabs and even more improbable bank heists, introducing a seemingly helpful insider whose loyalties are constantly in question, and cramming in a love story, hookup and all. (I know if my son were missing, I would waste time snuggling up to the woman responsible for his kidnapping too.) It gets even worse after O2 and Junior are inevitably reunited. Without any relief in sight, the film lurches onward as Curtis-Hall attempts to draw some meaning from O2's plight. Penance is paid, sacrifices are made and death takes its toll. To what end? Other than a contrived second reunion, none really. Waist Deep doesn't deliver on the promises it makes in its opening scenes, rarely resonates, never lands its biggest swings, and fails to say much of anything.

Waist Deep Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Waist Deep hits the ground running with a locked and loaded 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer. Unfortunately, a single issue undermines every stride the presentation makes: rampant aliasing. Curtis-Hall employs a variety of cameras, the least of which produce low-res establishing shots plagued by pixelation, blocking and stair-stepping. Normally I'd chalk every instance up to a source issue, knock off half-a-point for the frequency of the inherent distraction and call it a day. But the aliasing persists, worsens and begins invading shots that, by all accounts, shouldn't be plagued by such abnormalities. Watch Gibson's nose and arms, pay attention to his gun and the hood of his car, look closely at rooftops and doorways. Granted, some viewers will overlook it entirely -- particularly those with small to medium displays -- but edges shimmer, shift and splinter often enough to rile up any ardent videophile. And once you spot one instance, it's all but impossible to miss every instance thereafter.

The rest of the presentation isn't nearly as problematic, but still suffers. Shane Hurlbut's streetwise colors are sinewy and skintones are nicely saturated, contrast is consistent and delineation is decent. But black levels, while rich and inky when the Los Angeles sun is at its peak, take a dive when the lights go down, miring entire stretches of the film in murky shadows and debilitating darkness. Detail is uneven as well. Scenes that are bright and bold feature commendable textures and crisp object definition, but nighttime scenes don't fare so well. Delineation takes a hit, clarity falters and the image ceases to warrant praise. Thankfully, aside from the aforementioned aliasing, the integrity of Universal's technical encode isn't called into question. Some fleeting source noise litters a handful of tricky evening shots, but significant artifacting, banding and other compression mishaps aren't a factor. Ultimately, if you can't spot any aliasing, consider yourself extremely lucky. Your impression of Waist Deep's transfer will be more positive than mine.

Waist Deep Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Waist Deep rights some of its wrongs with a guns-blazing DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. Tenacious and tough, the LFE channel rarely relents, digging its fingers into every shootout, car chase and gangsta-rap upbeat and beat-down that erupts on screen. The rear speakers aren't quite so commanding, but they do support the whole of the soundscape nicely. Ambient effects and interior acoustics are convincing, dynamics and directionality are spot on and, while the film's hip-hop soundtrack tends to dominate the mix, prioritization is precise and efficient. Better still, dialogue is crisp, clean and intelligible, and only a handful of lines get dragged beneath the action. The film's sound design is pushy, abusive even, but it suits the tone of the flick and helps showcase the lossless track's power and prowess.

Waist Deep Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Waist Deep doesn't come with any special features.

Waist Deep Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Waist Deep shows promise early on before quickly squandering its potential. It isn't an outright misfire -- Gibson delivers a magnetic performance and the film's early chases are intense -- but it slowly but surely comes apart at the seams. Sadly, Universal's Blu-ray release is average at best. While its DTS-HD Master Audio track is excellent, its video transfer suffers from persistent aliasing (as well as other source issues) and it doesn't offer any special features. Waist Deep addicts may not hesitate, but everyone else should give it a rent long before adding it to their shopping cart.