Expected more

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The acting in this movie is really good.

This is one of my favourite gangster flicks. It follows Biggs, from his childhood in Waterhouse Jamaica, to being an adult in Miami that is deported back to Jamaica, only to return to Miami with is life-long friend Wayne who was once deported back to Jamaica himself and has made an empire there. Paul Campbell, Louie Rankin, Spragga Benz and Kymani Marley all do great jobs with their character. From the moment Biggs witnesses how his long time friend Wayne deals with business in Jamaica, Mr. Chin scene, it is a non-stop shootem' up film that is thoroughly enjoyable if this is your flavourThe previous reviewer obviously doesn't like this genre of film, and each to his own. But this film deserves to be reviewed by a fan of the genre so others with similar tastes get a real picture of what this movie is all about.If you like shootem' up gangster flicks this is a must see!!!!!

I don't know about the negative comment about Shottas. This movie has been in underground rotation for years. It has all the elements of a classic street shoot em up and is everything I expected it to be. I haven't run across anyone yet that didn't like this movie. I love this movie. If you like movies like Belly and Scarface, then you will like this one too. This is a classic gangsta flick that deserves a chance. I also own the grainy version, but this is now available at local video rental stores and retailers, which means they have cleared it up and fixed any problems the movie had before. The soundtrack is incredible, mostly songs from The Blueprint, and there are many recognizable faces in the movie. This movie is definitely worth seeing.

I find it absurd how many users believed this movie to be a "real" or at all a factually rooted depiction of the Jamaican and Miami criminal life. You people really need to read some books and turn down the rap music. This is absolutely one of the worst movies I have ever seen because it is absolutely unbelievable from the very start to any person with a brain over the age of 18. If you gave me one word to describe it, I would use cheesy. Unintentional comedy and poor acting is laden throughout the film, like the scene when the camera zooms out and Max is using a decapitated arm to smoke a cigarette (hilarious). The screen play seems like it was written by ametuers that neglected any sort of research on their subject before penning it. This movie is at its best, a decently filmed student film, but as an actual feature film it is laughable.During "intense" shoot out scenes, the movie shamelessly borrows its score from the Matrix. The scene when the lead character, Biggs, pulls his car up to Wyclef Jean as he's standing on the corner, playing a "Haitan Gangster," and has his extortion attempt foiled, might've been the single stupidest and worst written scenes in any gangster movie. The entire movie is just not believable, which is the key to any good or decent crime movie. The movie shouldn't play out like an ignorant fantasy, but rather like the story you read about in the news paper on your way to work. The only thing the movie was good for was the soft-porn scenes with two smoking hot girls, Biggz's girl and the jewelry store girl. The sound track featured some good songs as well, although if this was a real movie I highly doubt any of those rappers would allow their songs to appear on this pitiful rendition of a movie.

A bit uneven, Shottas suffers from low quality transfers that just add to the film's problems. My dvd copy would sometimes cut to a black screen that would say: Insert more robbery scenes here. Technical problems aside: the meaningful dialogue is quite slim- character development seems aimed at an increase in robberies, the direction is lop-sided and meandering, never really wanting to show you much more than hot chicks and nice whips(would have made for a nice extended music video). While I did like the music, it's over-used and just sort of "there"- didn't do much for the film other than elicit some head-nodding on my part. The Anderson character is a joke-he's a political-bad guy cut-out. And how about that "tongue-in-cheek" joke about Wyclef's character banking on a music career? Horrible. Did I care what happened at the end of the film to the main characters? Not really, they were bad people who did bad things, a sentiment I held regarding Cess Silvera's directing effort.