Like "The Harder they Come" and "Scarface" (both of which it echoes,) this movie is about young men growing up hard on the mean streets of Jamaica, using violence to rise to the top of the drug world. The Jamaican locale is presented as a gritty, urban jungle where young children play at being "shottas," Jamaican lingo for gangsters. In fact, the very first scene shows the major characters as children playing cops and robbers, only here the robbers are the good guys. When one of them puts his toy gun to the head of his playmate and goes bang, he yells out "I killed the snitch." That theme of gun violence pervades the whole movie before it's over and you get to see some wild action as well as some gruesome murders.The film stars Kymani Marley, the son of the legendary Bob Marley. The senior Marley is regarded as a god on his island and clearly Kymani is following the same path to superstardom. With smoldering good looks, neat dreads and a soulful demeanor, Kymani Marley takes the lead early on. While the old man was spending time in the studio, it appears his boy Kymani was spending time in the gym. The young gangster has a smooth, muscular body, broad shoulders and narrow waist, which the movie showcases in action scenes and in the bedroom. His posse consists of the equally physical Spragga Benz and some rough and tumble Jamaican street muscle.Physically, Kymani has this role nailed, but you have to wonder how the son of one of the world's most spiritual entertainers – a guy who preached peace – would feel about his son playing the part of a ruthless thug that deals out death as casually as cigarettes. Kymani is a total badass and his crew does whatever he tells them. In one riveting scene, they invade the home of a burly Jamaican dealer. They strip him to his boxers, discover his stash and then tell him they will let him go. So smooth is Kymani that you actually believe it - until you see the knife slowly drawn across the big man's throat.The moral ambiguity is only underlined when a police raid (the Jamaican cops look like gang members – some in uniform – some shirtless,) indifferently fires tech 9s into a crowd of party goers. After slaying a white politician who betrayed them, they flee to Miami. Interestingly enough, the politician is the only white death that occurs in this movie. All the other violence is brother-to-brother – something else the movie seems to be asking us to ponder. There's a shootout at a disco, shootouts on motorbikes, execution of a rival kingpin (a gun forced into his mouth) and all along the way, sex with some beautiful women. Much is made of the allure of the shotta and Marley plays the role, strutting bare-chested or wearing a wife beater, but always with a pistol jammed in his sagging waistband. Of course the gun is part of the attraction and, when one admirer begins to run her hands over his ripped body, she actually purrs when she touches it.The second half of the movie, spent in Miami, gets a little repetitive. More turf wars, more executions, and more hot tubs with topless models. There's enough bloodshed at the end of it to satisfy Shakespeare and the fates of the shottas are resolved – some better than others. Throughout it all is Kymani Marley. Already a big star and reigning sex symbol in Jamaica, one imagines his smoking sexuality, fighting skills and action creds will get him a crossover role --- he's earned it. His father may have been a Man of Peace, but his kid is a stone killah, mon.

Have you ever been to the toilet and throw everything you got. Shottas is the movie for you my friend, it's a non-stop 95 minutes of pure tacos mixed with burritos and some good Chinese stuff that you'll find in you toilet. Worse gangster movie never made ! Oh okay I have to made 10 lines for finishing my review on this nice piece of cr*p that my friend love. Finally the good thing I learn in this movie is that my friend who propose me this movie is a stupid hollow sh*t-head. You'll learn in this movie who black have no sense for business and you will discover that it is not with beautiful cars that your film will be good. if you want to watch a movie that you will never regret listening roadhouse baby with pat sweaz. pow

This could very well be the worst movie I've ever seen. Everything about it just screams AMATEURS. Seriously, I'm not kidding when I say that me and my friends could probably get together over the course of a couple of weekends and make a better, more intelligent movie than this.The characters are completely flat, and if they weren't flat (which they are), I still don't think the "actors" (like Bob Marley's son or Wyclef Jean) would have the acting chops to portray them as anything interesting.The movie is filled with horrendous inconsistencies. Bob Marley's son (Biggs) will be speaking American English and then suddenly he'll be speaking Jamaican English and go back and forth, like he totally forgot he was supposed to be in character. There's a montage scene early on where they show the guys taking over territory in Miami, and one of the scenes shows Biggs and Wayne getting pulled over and arrested, but the movie just hums along like that never happened (What the hell??). There's a scene at the end where "Mad Max" shoots the final intruder who's trying to kill Biggs, and you see the guy getting shot at least twice, including one in the chest. But 2 seconds later, you see the guy get up and run away and the gunshot wound to the chest has magically disappeared. hahahahahah It would be funny if it weren't so freaking pathetic. The head bodyguard for Bruck Shot Teddy who goes to Biggs's house at the end carries a shotgun that fires like a BB gun, and as soon as he kills Biggs's girl (who proceeds to spit watered-down ketchup out of her mouth as a sign that she's dead), he leaves. I guess he forgot he was supposed to kill Biggs. Or maybe he realized that his BB-gun-pellet-shooting shotgun was very weak so he decided to bolt.I could go on and on. The movie is flat out awful. It makes attempts at the end to try to create some kind of emotional story of two life long brothers and their journey, but it fails miserably and is just laughable in its attempt. This is a movie made and written by a bunch of AMATEURS.Do yourself a favor and avoid this movie, unless you appreciate some good old fashioned unintentional comedy and you're looking for a good laugh, then I might recommend it. Maybe.

Shottas seemed kind of pointless to me. I mean, music, cars, half naked woman, guns, sex, money, you know the regular add some yawdies inna it and what you get: A pointless, gun happy Jamaican movie which I'm tired of seeing. It seems that the only thing you see we come up with. The storyline wasn't good enough for me to enjoy the watch. Me being a Jamaican Canadian, I feel a little disappointed that this movie did so well in the eyes of a lot of people I know but really Jamaica, we can do so much better. The acting from what I remember was actually good.I loved Mad Max. He was very watchable. He was different. His character had the most depth to him. So if more time was spent into the storyline, character development,editing and plotting, then this movie would have been really good, but personally, I was left empty after watching it.But if you like the things that I stated already then you'll enjoy it. Actually you'll absolutely love it. I know a lot of people who likes it and some people who feel the way I feel. But everyone has their own opinion