Waist Deep (HD DVD)

Universal has been sending me a ton of HD DVDs lately and the most recent one I decided to gamble on was Waist Deep, and I call this a gamble because I was almost embarrassed just to be sitting in the theater and watching this movie when it first came out. I mean, come on, Tyrese plays a character whose friends used to call him Oxygen, but then things got so crazy they just doubled it up to O₂? Does this sound like a serious movie to you? How about the fact that the baddie is played by rapper The Game goes by the name of Meat? Trust me, there is a lot of bad in this movie... a lot of it.

So why give it another chance? Well, Universal sent it and I at least owe them the courtesy of giving it a once over and letting you the audience know that it is out there. This HD DVD is one of the HD DVD/DVD combo discs equipped with the HD DVD version on one side and the alternate DVD version on the other. Obviously a good ploy to get HD DVDs into the hands of current DVD-only families with the hope that they will soon upgrade to the new format. If I was to find a complaint with this little sales tactic it would be that those of us that have forked over the cash for the HD DVD player still have to flip the disc over to watch the special features. Yeah, it is a small complaint but these HD DVD players don't load so fast so it just becomes a nuisance.

As for the film, it follows O₂ who is just out of jail, has two strikes against him and an ex-girlfriend who is on the lamb and has left him as a single father. Somehow our two strikes ex-con has managed to get a security job and one day after work it is off to pick up the kid. After scooping up Junior the two are heading home when he gets car jacked, kicked to the concrete and the jackers are off with his car. Only problem, besides the car being stolen of course, is that Junior is still in the backseat. This leads to the only really cool scene in the movie, and if the rest of the movie had been able to live up to the violence and adrenaline of this little chase scene this would have been a hell of a flick. Unfortunately it all turns stale as O₂ hooks up with a hooker (Meagan Good) and the two join forces to become what an Eminem look-a-like calls them, the new Bonnie and Clyde.

Waist Deep is ridiculous, but I have this feeling that home viewing audiences aren't going to dislike it as much as I did in the theater. Hell, I even enjoyed it more at home than I did in the theater. The DVD is pretty much void of any special features of note. One takes a look at the shooting of the cool chase scene I mentioned and how it was made, a look at the shooting of the film and its action, a gallery of deleted scenes including a couple of alternate lines features and finally a music video of "Bad Girl" by Black Buddafly featuring Fabolous. The features are all pretty much throwaways, but if you must I would say the outtake features in the deleted scenes sections are probably the most entertaining.

Waist Deep is a rental at best, I don't think anyone out there will be watching this movie repeatedly, which makes a purchase a waste of money. However, I think a Netflix rental will probably hold you over on one of those nights a stupid film is in order; there is no thinking involved in this one.