Product Details

• Actors: Ky-Mani Marley, Spragga Benz, Louie Rankin, Paul Campbell, Wyclef Jean
• Directors: Cess Silvera
• Writers: Cess Silvera
• Producers: Cess Silvera, Brad Kiosaki, David-Michael Petragnani, Destiny Danny Campbell, Fabien Pruvot
• Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Subtitles: English, French
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: January 2, 2007
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000JRYOPG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,537 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Shottas" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

In Jamaican patois, a gangster is a "shotta" or "shot-caller." Like The Harder They Come and Third World Cop, Cess Silvera choreographs his crime drama to a reggae beat. Bob Marley’s son Stephen provides the music, while Wyclef Jean drops by as a dealer. The saga begins in late-1970s Kingston. Teenagers Biggs (J.R. Silvera) and Wayne (Carlton Grant Jr.) have had their fill of poverty, so they get a gun and start looting and shooting like the shottas they idolize. Flash forward 20 years and Biggs (Stephen’s actor/musician brother, Kymani Marley) has just been deported from the States. He picks up where he left off, joining Wayne (DJ Spragga Benz) and the psychopathic Mad Max (Paul Campbell, Dancehall Queen) in the thug life. As with Pacino's Tony Montana, Miami is their ultimate port of call. Silvera acknowledges the debt to Brian De Palma's Scarface, but there isn't as much drama here--just a lot of violence (spurting blood is a running motif). Cinematographer Cliff Charles uses all manner of visual trickery to lively up the joint, like grainy black and white, slow motion, and jump cuts. The soundtrack also helps to keep things moving, but it's hard to feel sympathy for those who feel no sympathy for anyone but themselves. Vicious as he was, Montana still had a smidgen of sensitivity. As with The Harder They Come, this English-language production is subtitled due to strong accents and pervasive slang. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Product Description

SHOTTAS - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Independent Film!!!!!!, July 17, 2007

By 

America's Next Pulitzer Prize Winner "Mia" (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shottas (DVD)

This was Cess Silva's 1st film and it was a very good movie, it explores the life of two Jamaican childhood best friends who grew up dirt poor & raggedy in the slums of Kingston, Jamaica. The friends (Biggs & Wayne)shared common goals, and each wanted to be rich with money, power & respect and wouldn't stop until they got to the top and had the best life possible. The movie takes you on a roller coaster ride while it explores friendship, loyalty, ambition, crime, pain, love, deceit/betrayal and teaches you a lessons. The loyalty, love and respect Wayne, Biggs & Mad Max have for one another as friends is almost farfetched nowadays, no one got jealous of the other one, no hating or backstabbing, just true brotherly love. They were down for each other and fearless. At the end Biggs learned a painful lesson when his demons finally catch up to him and he has to pay in many ways that money nor fine luxuries can't buy. I'll admit it was an underground movie and leaves alot to be desired which may come if there's a sequel, but being this is the director's first movie, I give him 5 stars for effort and for the delectable eye candy (Kymani Marley & Spragga Benz). In his next effort I'm sure he'll have a plot and other essentials in a good movie.
This is a good movie and anyone from the hood, the Caribbean and born African American can definately relate, I feel as though this movie is just as good as Scarface, The Godfather and Belly for that much, these rappers and artists that have no formal acting coaching did a superb job!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very violent, August 24, 2010

By 

Paka Paka (Georgia, United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Shottas (DVD)

Sorry to be the only negative review but personally, I thought the movie was gratuitously violent. Yes I know that this movie is as close to the real world of shottas as you can get. I am Jamaican and everything in this movie seems to be based on fact. It gives you a very good idea of shotta life-style from their point of view. All I'm saying that there was a lot of needless violence; violence put in to make the movie more gritty. A lot of people got shot in the head. Is this shotta life? Yes it is! It is important that we see the blood and brain matter to understand that he got shot in the head, no it isn't.

Someone else mentioned that there should be a part 2 to this movie. I agree, make a part 2, but based on the underground success of this movie, how about a part 2 that shows more points of view? It would it interesting to explore how the shotta life affects his family. Does anyone remember the famous shotta who had a brother who was an English professor? Or how one gave his mother unlimited credit cards for Neiman Marcus in the States?

I wanted to give this movie three stars but I have to give it four just for the yardies.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars SHOTTAS GOOD, June 11, 2008

By 

MELCHISEDEC "MELCHISEDEC" (GEORGIA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shottas (DVD)

TO HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THIS MOVIE, I WAS SHOCKED TO SEE HOW GOOD IT WAS. THE LANGUAGE AND THE ACTUAL REALITY OF THEH LIFESTYLE OVER IN JAMAICA WAS TRUTHFUL.

IT WAS WORTH THE BUY