Hood drama follows single dad trying to retrieve abducted son. Former gang-banging single dad O2 (Tyrese Gibson) is suddenly plunged into a do-or-die situation; trying to go straight for his son, Junior's sake, this recently paroled ex-con is forced to go back outside the law after his son is kidnapped in a carjacking. The resulting chase and shootout have left Junior in the hands of Meat (The Game), the vicious leader of the Outlaw Syndicate. O2's shady cousin Lucky (Larenz Tate) tries to mediate, but is torn between criminal and family loyalties. The only person willing to help O2 get his son back is wily street-smart hustler Coco (Meagan Good), whose path fatefully crossed O2's just moments before the kidnapping. When Lucky gets word to O2 that Meat expects $100,000 for Junior's freedom, O2 and Coco seize the opportunity to pit rival elements of the South Los Angeles underworld against each other. 'It's either all or nothing,' realizes O2. With the clock ticking down, the heat between O2 and Coco rises as they become a lawbreaking couple, on a tear through a range of Los Angeles neighborhoods. Can they outwit the underworld and save Junior and themselves?  Waist Deep may not be believable from start to finish, but it's a slickly produced and reasonably entertaining entry in the "gangsta noir" genre that includes such previous films as Dead Presidents, Set it Off, and Never Die Alone. In his first leading role since playing a somewhat similar character in 2001's Baby Boy, plays O2 (short for "Oxygen"), who's just emerged from six years in prison and is looking to go legit all the way. That's when his car gets stolen ? with his young son Junior still in the backseat ? and O2 retaliates by inciting a gang war on the streets of Los Angeles. He recruits his unpredictable pot-head brother Lucky (Larenz Tate) and the reluctant assistance of a hot hustler named Coco (Meagan Good) in a bank-robbing scheme to pay the $100,000 ransom that a brutal machete-wielding thug named Meat (played by rapper The Game) has demanded for Junior's safe return. Director Vondie Curtis-Hall (whose son, H. Hunter Hall, plays Junior) keeps the twisting plot moving at a pulse-quickening pace, and the movie looks great thanks to Shane Hurlbut's widescreen cinematography, but the build-up of improbable (or just plain ludicrous) events becomes a little too much to handle as Waist Deep gets waist deep in its own predictability. On the plus side, Gibson and Good make an appealing action couple, and despite its overly maudlin conclusion, the movie's got some emotional depth that comes as a pleasant surprise amidst its otherwise forgivable shortcomings. -- Jeff Shannon Synopsis This sun scorched, bullet-blasted South Central L.A. story follows the car- and corpse-strewn trail of an ex-con turned security guard O2 (Tyrese Gibson), who gets carjacked while his son is still asleep in the backseat. The thugs hold the child for ransom, and O2 has 48 hours to come up with a hundred grand. His only lead in getting the kid back is Coco (Meagan Good) the cutie who distracted him at the traffic light. Together they bicker, fall in love, and launch a plan to take down a vicious gang leader named Meat (The Game) while they roll along on a bank-robbing spree. Director Vondie Curtis-Hall keeps the action humming and swathes his gritty South Central locations in a thick haze of urban grime and chaotic spontaneity, making it reminiscent of 1970s cult classics like Black Caesar and The Warriors. Tyrese is more than up for the job here as the tough but tender O2; he and the very sexy Meagan Good generate major onscreen chemistry. Larenz Tate plays O2's dope-head cousin, and Kimora Lee Simmons has a funny cameo as a fencer of hot designer dresses. Her husband, Russell Simmons, was one of the producers.