Third World Cop

Small town cop in Jamaica returns to Kingston to fight organized crime through his effective but not always nice methods.

Normally I dislike shot on video dramas since they come off as ultra cheap an inept, this film however bucks the trend is a pretty good little crime drama. The action is quite good and has a realistic feel and the performances are there and not the typical sort of posturing one often finds in films of this sort. It all works. Best of all the video production actually adds an immediacy that most movies shot on film don't have. This is one to consider if it hits cable or you see it in blockbuster. Its not the be all and end all but its worth a shot if you're doing a double feature.

The story is simple enough. Cop comes back to his old 'hood but this time its in Kingston, Jamaica. That means dancehall, reggae and a great performance by Paul Campbell who was also in Dancehall Queen. Very entertaining and worth watching because of Campbell's acting. He moves the film along and is a presence on the screen. The "Dancehall Queen" Audrey Reid plays the love interest. The acting is good all the way around. The scenes were shot in the area of Dungle.

It's a unique movie. Two best friends find themselves on opposites sides of the law. The basic story and structure is great, where it falters is the dialogue. It isn't that I couldn't understand it. It just had such awful lines like, "I'm sending you home guilty as charged" or "Not Nice, pay the price." The crew filmed this movie in Digital Video to save on the budget but that doesn't ever take away from the movie. A worthy rental or addition to your library.

While it was fascinating to watch a Jamaican movie for the first time, I must say that there's a lot that could've been better in Third World Cop. Most importantly the acting. While Paul Campbell does a fairly good job, virtually all the rest of the cast is quite amateurish, and I'm not just saying that because I lost about 1/4 of the dialogue because of the Jamaican English... Also, the camera and post-production work is below Hollywood/Western standards. The small budget (or at least I assume this movie has a small budget) and apparent inexperience of much of the behind-camera crew unfortunately shines through quite often. The script is not bad, but we've seen this before. We haven't seen this in a Jamaican setting before, however, which is perhaps the movie's greatest selling point.

To sum up this is not too great a movie per se and you sometimes get the feeling that you're watching some cheap action TV show, but the Jamaican setting and all that implies (when was the last time you heard anything like "we run things, things don't run we" in an American movie soundtrack? :o) ) is somewhat refreshing, which is essentially what makes the movie worth watching.

In this well paced, down-to-earth film, we are introduced to "Capone," a tough "shoot-first, ask questions later" cop.

After a transfer back to his old neighborhood in "Dungle," one of the poverty-stricken tenements of Kingston, Jamaica, he uncovers a burgeoning gun running operation headed by the local Don, "Wonie".

Capone is a force to be reckoned with - one doubts he will encounter many problems -until he finds out that one of the Don's main men (Ratty) is the young brother of Capone's best friend from his youth.

The film captures some of the spirit of "The Harder They Come" in an updated fashion. The story remains tragic but is well complemented by true-to-life characters and a healthy dose of comic relief.

Subtitles could use work - there are times when you can understand the patois that they use subtitles. Other times dialogue is incomprehensible and no subtitles are used.

All in all a good job at portraying an all too common story in the tenements and "yards" of Jamaica. If you read "Born fi' Dead" and enjoyed it you will also enjoy this film.