Julien Neaves, Caribbean Head Writer
It has been a while since I have reviewed a Trinidad and Tobago gangster (or “gangsta”) movie. They are always super low budget; the acting is never in danger of winning any awards and the plots are relatively simple. But there is a pseudo-realistic charm to these guerilla-style independent films, and they usually feature some decent action. And all these things are featured in 2016’s The Wetman Movie by Brooklyn Bond but there is also more filler than a Brazilian butt lift. With an impatient SPOILER ALERT let’s dive into it.
Artiste Sasha O. King aka S.O. King plays a fictional version of himself, a former gangster and struggling musician who we are introduced to via an opening music video segment with an admittedly catchy song. The soundtrack overall is pretty decent if not outstanding. Story wise, King is trying to keep his younger brother “Bishop” from the gang life as a promise to their mother who is living in the US. Bishop works for a mysterious gang leader called “God” who would not be too pleased that King took away Bishop’s gun and drugs. The stage is set for a thrilling gangster crime drama but do hold your horses.
For the majority of the film, we follow a series of King’s mostly dull misadventures. These include him visiting a graphic artist who he owes $6,000, borrowing money from his friend “Country” to pay the graphic artist, talking to “Video Man” (played by my good friend and GT Network co-founder Ancil Harris) who he owes $30,000, going to buy jerk chicken on the Lady Young Road lookout, freestyling with friends, trying to sell CDs on the street, listening to Rohan “Fireball” Richards sing (remember Fireball?), doing a radio interview, having random sex with a woman (likely his girlfriend), walking through Arima looking for Bishop, walking through Port of Spain looking for Bishop and driving…very…slowly. Yeah, I’m getting bored writing it all down. In between we do get a couple of scenes of Bishop with the other gangsters, but the first two acts are 90 per cent dull filler.
Thankfully things do pick up in the final act and we FINALLY get some surprisingly bloody gangster action including an over-the-top finale as King, Country and a hired “Wet Men crew” take on the gangsters who are holding Bishop. Some of the sound mixing is a bit off and the fight choreography could have used some work, but it was entertaining enough. I will say that the after all the build-up the reveal of “God” was most disappointing, and King’s anti-gang message is quite muddied when he not only hires a bunch of killers (the aforementioned Wet Men) but tries to mow down a bunch of gangsters himself with a high-powered weapon. So yeah, The Wet Man had the potential to be one of the better Trini gangster films, but a lack of focus leaves it squarely in the middle. According to a message at the end, the film was shot and edited in 11 days, and I do give them kudos for putting together a competent movie in such a short time frame.
Editor Jules’ Score: 5 out of 10
You can watch The Wetman Movie for yourself on YouTube by clicking here. And you can check out more Trini gangster film reviews from Robot Mango Reviews below:
Julien “Editor Jules” Neaves is a TARDIS-flying, Force-using Trekkie whose bedroom stories were by the Cryptkeeper, learned to be a superhero from Marvel, but dreams of being Batman. I love promoting Caribbean film (Cariwood), creating board games and I am an aspiring author. I say things like “13 flavours of awesome sauce”. Read more.