The film centers on James Greenville (Shameik Moore ) an unpublished graphic artist in New Orleans' Ninth Ward post Katrina. With a wife and child, they were in underwater before the hurricane. Unable to get a job or a FEMA loan, James and his three friends rob a casino on the information given to them from Cousin Bass (T.I.) a drug supplier operating out of a FEMA trailer. Shots were fired and one in the group dies. They don't have all the money Cousin demands. Lucinda Valencia is introduced 43 minutes into the film as the detective on the case. The film was more about relaying a message. It uses Wizard of Oz metaphors as Dorothy tries to find her way home. The could have left Ethan Hawke's character out of the film and saved about 20 boring minutes. Guide: F-word. Nudity.

The movie was great. i finished watching it over 2 & a half hours ago and it was good. though the story and plotline is a bit predictable and cliched. desperate friends trying to save their families by robbing places (in this case, casinos), getting in trouble with gangsters that are also have connections with city officials. bit of a typical tale as old as time kind of situation. but in the case of the friends trying to save their homes and families after katrina, ill make an exception and i dont blame for what they did. the ending was confusing. did blink, junior and miracle get killed or did they survived and the fema incident was all in blink's fantasties? or the fema robbery did happened, and lucinda and blink's chat during the "cut throat city" graphic novel signing was before?. that explains why lucinda was very shocked and emotional. anyway, it was a great movie! but the only one that truly stood out and was spectacular the most is eiza gonzalez and her character "detective lucinda valencia". Q: WHY ISNT ANYBODY TALKING ABOUT EIZA'S PERFORMANCE AND HER CHARACTER and WHY ISNT EIZA WINNING AWARDS RIGHT ABOUT NOW??!!!!! besides her roles in from dusk till dawn: the series, her telenovelas, paradise hills, she's missing and bloodshot, this is one of the most believable, memorable, hypnotic and iconic roles and performances eiza had ever did!. seriously, lucinda is not the kind of person you wanna mess with when she's on a mission. also, she showed a more kind hearted and emotional side when she tried to convince blink to get out of trouble before its too late. truthfully, i listen to & cooperate with lucinda. she's the only good cop that makes sense in the whole @#$%^ movie!!! i give eiza gonzalez 10/10.

Masterfully done. Had me on the edge of my seat. Well acted

They all end up being shot by the police but 2 show up alive after so what's that about?

I saw 'Cut Throat City' starring Shameik Moore-The Get Down_tv, Dope; Eiza Gonzales-Bloodshot, Baby Driver; Ethan Hawke-The Magnificent Seven_2016, The Purge; Wesley Snipes-The Expendables 3, the Blade movies and Terrence Howard-Empire_tv, Red Tails. This movie is directed by RZA-director/actor/rapper-and has several good actors in it but it was a little disappointing. The story takes place right after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. Shameik and his buddies return to a devastated Ninth Ward in New Orleans; homes destroyed, no jobs available and FEMA not helping financially. Shameik and friends make a deal with a local drug dealer to pull off a heist in a casino but things go wrong, of course, and they are soon on the run from the gangsters and the police. Eiza is the detective in charge of the investigation, Ethan is a councilman wanting to get business back in town after the hurricane and Terrence is the big honcho mob boss at the top of the food chain. Wesley has mostly a cameo as Shameik's father. The ending was a little confusing, too-at least it was to me, but I did hear a few other people in the theater say, 'What the #%$&*!'. It has some people getting killed and then in the next scene, they are shown still alive-editing problem maybe or even a flashback? I don't know, it wasn't clear. It's rated "R" for violence, language, drug content and sexual content-including nudity-and has a running time of 2 hours & 3 minutes. I wouldn't buy this on DVD. I wouldn't rent it either. If you really want to see it I would wait until it hits the free tv.

This is not a great film. It's okay. I'm enjoying this film. This is a gritty movie. If you've never been hungry you would not understand

RZA's artistic choices and pacing make this film worthwhile... Its not a new movie by any means but does well through its own lense of freshness and originality. The colors and characters remind me a lot of Abel Ferrara's efforts in the 80s and early 90.. Hopefully we will see more movies like this from the RZA.

IN A NUTSHELL: Set in New Orleans during the infamous Hurricane Katrina, this film features four friends from the poor 9th Ward who are desperate enough to get involved with a local gang and dangerous heist. Gee, what could go wrong? Directed by the de facto Wu Tang Clan leader RZA, the movie is raw, dark, and tells a compelling crime story with drama and action. This is NOT a movie that will appeal to a lot of people, simply because of the immense profanity and rough environment. TIPS FOR PARENTS: This is NOT a movie for kids. Terrible profanity, including zillions of F-bombs and the "N" word Some skin during a honeymoon scene The movie starts with graphic-novel images of violence with blood splatters You see the rear end of a man when he pulls his pants down Crime Violence with guns and hand-to-hand combat, murder Several scenes in a strip club with views of scantily-clad strippers and topless women Drugs, alcohol A woman flips the bird. THEMES: Racism Blame vs. responsibility Don't wait for the government to save you. Save yourself. Be careful who you spend your time with because you become like them. People do desperate things in desperate times. Corruption (society, corporations, and individuals) Rationalizing crime Choices and their consequences Greed Second chances Home THINGS I LIKED: The talented cast includes Shameik Moore, Demetrius Shipp Jr., Denzel Whitaker, Keean Johnson, and Eiza Gonzalez. But wait! There's more! There are some impressive cameo performances by Ethan Hawke, Terrence Howard, Wesley Snipes, Isaiah Washington, Kat Graham, Lil Chuuch, Joel David Moore, and Rob Morgan. I liked the use of the graphic novel to illustrate the world that the protagonist lives in. THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE: I felt like I just walked through the swampy gutters of New Orleans after watching this foul-mouthed film. It was exhausting but powerful. Some bad editing. Some of the accents were bad and inconsistent. There is an interesting juxtaposition of religion and crime. For example, several men pray before they commit crimes and murder. The protagonist had a college education and artistic talent, yet he chose to commit crimes, claiming he wasn't given equal opportunities. You can watch the rest of my review on my Movie Review Mom YouTube channel and website!

A decent made for streaming urban crime drama, 4 childhood friends , trying to pursue their dreams of success, get hit with the calamity of Hurricane Katrina in their community and all hope for survival seem doubtful, RZA did what he could with the material to bring us a tale that is all too real, the acting from the veteran actors was excellent, the camera work during some scenes was a little chaotic, the plot could have been a little more coherent in some scenes , the soundtrack was excellent , the young actors that portrayed the friends, their skills will continue to develop, but got the job done in their roles, overall decent watch, I want to see more films from RZA in the future, he has potential to be a good director.

I don't know who is behind the bad reviews, but come on guys did you even GIVE the movie a chance or just start hacking away at the film after ten minutes? There are ALOT of well known actors in this movie from Terrance Howard to Wesley Snipes and they all showed up at surprising times in the movie. I actually loved the story line in the beginning and middle but the end was definitly confusing and to be honest uncalled for. If I was the writer to this movie I would have left the ending at them getting away with starting a life over. It was brilliant and it left a sigh of a relief in the end for the boys. INSTEAD, THE writer ends up making the boys do one more robbery like in the movie "Set it off" and gets everyone killed. LIke for what? Why not just let the remaining 3 live and have them actually settle back into their lives? What I also liked was the important information about Katrina and how shady the government was with FEMA and the Ninth Ward. I mean it's a movie, but we all know that our government has a way of pushing out poor black people and protecting the wealthy rich. I didn't think any of the actors were bad actors at all! But some of the editing was weird and at times shifted from one to the other too fast. So this movie got 8 stars from me because I adored the actors and I actually think the story line had a lot of meaning but was just cut badly and the ending was just terribly executed. I think the audience would have been happier with them getting away with it. Either way, watch the movie please and don't listen to these haters who gave this movie a 4 and below. (rolling my eyes) They probably didn't even watch it. :-)