Waters Rising (2007) Movie Review, Trailer, Film Still and Poster

USA 2007
Director: Greg Carter & Shawn McElveen
Cast: Michael Anthony Jackson, Andrae Noel, Karen Yelverton, Jalene Mack, Marcus Newman Comier
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Running Time: 1 hour 29 minutes

The Movie Review

Waters Rising film still 1


WATERS RISING
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Nearly around 8 months after the deadly Tsunami had struck Indonesia and neighboring countries, which left the world in shock, a category 5 storm struck America with the biggest casualties coming manly from Mississippi and Louisiana (New Orleans) and surrounding areas which took lives more than 1,836 people and left abundant other survivors homelss and an estimated 3 million people without electricity (wikipedia). But amidst the deadly fate that branded painful memories to the its residents, several filmmakers dare to give the other side of the hurricane, being concluded in the tagline that says "Hurricane katrina took more than 1800 lives..., How many did it save?"

Waters Rising'sstory revolves around brothers, Gangsta (Michael Anthony Jackson) and Killer (Andrae Noel). They are the sons of the notorious local gangster and a crackhead mother, Carol (Jalene Mack). At first, they don't want anything to do with their father's job but after a shocking incident in their mother's room, they become vicious. At one night, the younger brother, Killer (the hot-headed one) steals a car which subsequently Gangsta sacrifices himself to take the responsibility by staying in prison for 5 years. Coming home, Gangsta is awaited by his first and only boo Katrina (Karen Yelverton). They vow to lead a better life, but it's not as smooth as they hope for with Killer's attitude and the neighbourhood. Not for long Gangsta is back with his old life, and even worse for they have to deal with the heartless Jay Dee (Marcus Newman Comier). With the Hurricane Katrina is coming, what is going to happen with the lifes of Gangsta, Killer, Jay Dee and their loved ones?

Waters Rising is an independent film that I would've probably skipped it if it hadn't for the intriguing tagline and the fact that this movie had names in several festival, including the Remi Award nomination for Worldfest Houston, premiered at the 10th annual UrbanWorld Film Festival in New York and Spindletop Film Festival in Beaumont, Texas and brought home the pride of winning as the Best Docu-Drama of San Diego Black Film Festival. Docu-Drama? Yes indeed, so fellow moviegoers are better not hoping to see effects-laden disaster movie with all its glory. Waters Rising focuses more on the drama side of the people who were at that time living in New Orleans (the largest city in The State of Louisiana). The script and the dialogue are blah, but the acting is quite ok for an Indie flick, with the strongest performance coming from Jalene Mack and Karen Yelverton. But the premise is what intriguing, knowing at the end that Katrina had a good side afterall.

Average moviegoers might want to avoid this drama film completely, even though it has the pride from that 4 festivals, still it doesn't cater to general taste. I still could see the good side of this hood flick like the storytelling and the acting, although the child actors act awful. But I don't see any redeeming factor for you guys. The characters do carry guns, but when they shoot it, most of the time the screen would go blank, and it happens often which is annoying. And we've got a few sex scenes that might be categorized only as PG-13.

There are many movies concerning Hurricane Katrina, but I advice you to just simply look for other titles, which of course I would recommend you to see Trouble the Water (2008).