Shottas - Raw Jamaican Gangsta Thriller

Dubbed the Jamaican 'Scarface,' or a combination of 'Scarface' and 'The Harder they Come', Shottas (meaning gangster in Jamaican) just hit the big screens all across America. The featured attraction is Ky-Mani Marley, son of Bob, who has done some reggae recording but here tries out the role of a drug kingpin named Biggs. Spragga Benz, a dancehall star, plays Biggs’s childhood friend Wayne. According to a review in the New York Times, 'This movie glorifies the drug trade and the contempt for life that it entails. Somehow these despicable thugs are surrounded by curvaceous, compliant women, who tend to be onscreen just long enough to bare their breasts, which promptly get bullet holes in them.'

“Shottas” is full of interesting performers in the smaller roles; the best known is probably Wyclef Jean, who also composed the movie’s music. In an article titled "Jamaica should sue Shottas for slander", in the New Jersey Star Ledger, the review reads 'The male performers look stoned, even when they're not supposed to be, and parade before the camera like mugs at a police lineup. The female performers look as if they've just finished two hours of table dances at Scores. The plot consists of people we can't root for killing people we can't stand. The direction consists of someone occasionally remembering to say cut.'

The movie trailer is below. Check it.