Waist Deep 2006

Peter Debruge, Miami Herald: [Hall] undermines the early style and intelligence of his all-black action movie, taking audiences for the wrong kind of ride in the end. Read more

Jessica Reaves, Chicago Tribune: Even with the movie's multiple personas, its message -- that salvation sometimes doesn't arrive in the expected form, and that escaping isn't the same thing as running away -- is delivered loud and clear. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: The film is noteworthy for its tiny if incomplete effort to pour old wine in a new bottle. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Sometimes excessiveness and implausibility are virtues in disguise. Movies this enjoyable don't come about by accident. Read more

Bob Townsend, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: That sappy sentimentality juxtaposed with plenty of gritty gangster stuff drives both the tone and the plot of Waist Deep. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: The Game attempts to exude menace through hardcore forehead-wrinkling and gangsta nose-crinkling, but his efforts are more comic than sinister. Read more

Randy Cordova, Arizona Republic: A mean and depressing B-movie in which there's no one to root for or even care about. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: A cynical excuse for the writer and director (and talented actor) Vondie Curtis-Hall to sock some money away for the kids' college tuition. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: By teasing us with potential meaning only to embrace wanton gunplay, Waist Deep betrays thinking members in the audience. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: If you're looking for gunning gangsta action on a hot summer night, Waist Deep is an effective-enough story of urban outlaws in love and on the run. It's sweet, sweaty stuff, for a while at least. Read more

Gregory Kirschling, Entertainment Weekly: Curtis Hall keeps slipping in surprising social and emotional flavorings rarely found in [this] genre. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: [Director Hall] has proved he is as good with actors as he is at staging action sequences and creating tension. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: Everyone connected with this gangsta opus was probably trying to make a crowd-pleaser. However, you wind up wondering what kind of crowds they were trying to please. Read more

Chuck Wilson, L.A. Weekly: Hall's heart lies not in guns and chases but in finding redemption for his city-ravaged characters. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: It seemed impossible that Vondie Curtis Hall could direct a movie that's as bad as Glitter, but he has: Waist Deep. And Mariah Carey is nowhere in sight. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: Instead of tightening up its storyline, Waist Deep gets more outlandish with its plot complications. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: A Juilliard-trained musician, accomplished actor and busy TV director, Vondie Curtis Hall is probably too smart to be directing stories like Waist Deep. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Nothing in this story is remotely realistic, and the target audience for urban dramas -- teenage boys -- won't know what to make of its mushy romantic center. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Waist Deep is a hip, hard genre picture that begins well, but quickly gets in over its head. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

David Jenkins, Time Out: From its non-committal title downwards -- we're a bit worse than ankle deep, but not quite neck deep -- the film includes a final shot that is almost surreal in its implausibility. Waist Deep? More like Deep Waste. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: For all helmer Vondie Curtis Hall's aspirations to grittiness, his script (co-written by Darin Scott) is mired in a violent fantasy L.A. where the stereotypes fly almost as fast as the bullets. Read more

Bill Gallo, Village Voice: For its ever shifting attitudes toward men, women, and murder, Waist Deep is one of the sloppiest movies ever to reach the screen. Read more

Teresa Wiltz, Washington Post: No, it's not a great movie. It is, however, an interesting one, a combination of exploitative hood flick and meditation on trust and love -- thug love, romantic love and, most important, parent-child love. Read more