Review: Shottas

Shottas regurgitates worn-out gangsta tropes in telling the story of two hoods trying to make it big in both Jamaica and Miami’s crime worlds.

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Shottas
Photo: Destination Films

Proof that Jamaicans love Scarface as much as Americans, Shottas regurgitates worn-out gangsta tropes in telling the story of two hoods trying to make it big in both Jamaica and Miami’s crime worlds. Written and directed by Cess Silvera, the film—subtitled because of its characters’ heavy patois—is little more than a music video-ish glorification of the hip-hop lifestyle crammed full of shootouts, drug deals, busty women, and endless use of the word “bloodclot,” Jamaica’s version of everybody’s favorite four-letter expletive. Lifelong friends Biggs (Kymani Marley) and Wayne (dancehall celebrity Spragga Benz) reunite after years apart to take over their native island’s underworld, a plan that involves murdering anyone foolish enough to oppose or conspire against them. Like a less skillful Tony Scott, Silvera shoots his directorial debut—which has been sitting on a studio shelf since 2002, and with good reason—with plenty of jumpy edits, unnecessary aerial shots, and fluctuating camera speeds, an empty style perfectly in keeping with a frivolous narrative that makes Grand Theft Auto’s storylines look downright profound by comparison. Lousy slow-motion cinematography accompanies virtually every killing as well as Biggs’s hilarious shower sex scene, Wyclef Jean heartily overacts in his screen debut, and Stephen Marley’s vociferous reggae-rap soundtrack makes painfully literal the film’s The Harder They ComeGet Rich or Die Tryin’ hybridization. Amusingly, singer-turned-actor Kymani Marley can barely keep his heavy-lidded eyes open during half his scenes, a likely byproduct of his having overly enjoyed his home country’s most famous herbal produce. Still, one can only wonder what the Shottas star’s dad might have thought of his son’s participation in a project whose sole purpose is the unabashed celebration of bloodshed.

Score: 
 Cast: Kymani Marley, Paul Campbell, Wyclef Jean, Spragga Benz, Louie Rankin  Director: Cess Silvera  Screenwriter: Cess Silvera  Distributor: Destination Films  Running Time: 95 min  Rating: R  Year: 2002  Buy: Video

Nick Schager

Nick Schager is the entertainment critic for The Daily Beast. His work has also appeared in Variety, Esquire, The Village Voice, and other publications.

1 Comment

  1. What a scathing review from such an un-comsopolitan man. It’s not lost upon me that you are a white man incredulously critiquing an ethnic group’s cultural film, citing things like: “the film—subtitled because of its characters’ heavy patois” First of all they were speaking “twang” a form of creolized patois and American/British English—NOT patois. Trust me not even a closed caption could properly transliterate. And lets not get into the racist trope of unnecessarily captioning a BIPOC speaking perfectly fine English broken or not if you cant overstand then the film is probably NOT MEANT FOR YOU!

    Lets get into this other unsavory comment you made “[Shottas] is little more than a music video-ish glorification of the hip-hop lifestyle” Please, as a Jamaican American woman privy to American black culture, someone h-explain to me what the “hip-hop lifestyle” is? Is it baggy jeans and drugs? Women with fat bottoms? Wait no is it because they are black and in wifebeaters? Let me tell unuh sometin’ Theres NOTHING (and I do mean NOTHING) NOTHING HIP-HOP about this movie. Absofreakinglutely NOTHING hip-hop about this film. Not even “ish” If you were privy to my culture you could say SHOTTAS, Rudeboy, Badman, Hot Stepper, Bandulu etc. But youre not. So please educate yourself becuz yuh luuk chupid! Smt!

    While I’m not trying to defend this movie because yes I realize it was poorly acted (sorry Spragga n Marley) and poorly shot and poorly written but I cannot allow a white man to insult my culture with some dog whistles as, “ crammed full of shootouts, drug deals, busty women…” Mek yuh nuh say dat bout any white film with the same amount of violence???

    I have never seen a critique go that hard on other “gangster flicks” like Scarface, The Departed, The Godfather etc yet here you are vanilla Yankee diarrheea of the rasclat mouth

    And its not spelled “bloodclot,” its “bloodclaat” and no its NOT “ Jamaica’s version of everybody’s favorite four-letter expletive” “F**k” does NOT equal bloodclaat. This review just irked me to rhaatid! Me dun!

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