Shaft

Shaft was a lot of fun and to make this movie work the new shaft is now the nephew of the former from the 70's and it does work well, even having the actor that originally took the mantle up being in it aswell. This time around though Samuel L Jackson plays him. His tough and wise cracking just like jackson is in most movies. Christian pale is the mean harvard bully character and also plays him well ever after seeing american psycho he has been kinda creepy but thats a good thing. But getting back to shaft the story was interesting and all the cast were great,overall it was a pretty decent and solid action movie that was well made by the late great John singleton.

"Shaft 2000" is a reasonable successor to the original Shaft of 29 years ago. The film shows restraint by keeping Shaft big, but not bigger than life, as it tries to be a human story first and an action flick second. Unfortunately, in spite of good performances (especially by Wright) and good production talent, the story fails on the human level and hedges on the obvious alternative of exaggerated good and bad guys and a profusion of gratuitous violence, sex, and action. Worth a watch but keep expectations low.

I love this 1980s-style action flick, and watch it every time it is pops up on TV. Sam Jackson plays Shaft's nephew, a big-city cop trying to track down a reluctant witness to a racially motivated murder. The killer, played by a sinister, pre-BATMAN Christian Bale, is modeled on the New York preppie rapist (remember him?). He hires a low-level drug dealer (Jeffrey Wright) to track down the witness, a waitress (Toni Collette), and kill her. Shaft must find her before they do. Jackson is silky smooth, the action is right out of a DIE HARD or LETHAL WEAPON flick, and the landscape is populated by some great supporting players including Dan Hedaya as a corrupt cop and Vanessa Williams as a cop who has Shaft's back. The original Shaft, Richard Roundtree, even pops up a couple of times. This is one wild and funny ride that plays the way we prefer our action films to play. At times, it is a little thin on plot, but it keeps moving. No blood to speak of, just action, action and more action. And keep a close eye on Wright, a noted stage and screen actor. His soft-spoken drug lord tenderly holds a newborn baby at one moment and in the next pokes a knife into the neck of a terrified woman. He steals every scene he is in.

I liked this one alot-fast moving, funny, crude, violent at times, has the same old 'sphagetti Western' shooting style where the baddie can't hit the broadside of a barn with 400 rounds while Shaft takes'em out one shot at a time, never misses. Enjoyed Jackson in this mucho, this is some fine work by a kinetic actor in his prime. Vanessa Williams is easy on the eyes and a smooth actress in her own right, plus you have to give this Jeffrey Wright guy credit for doing a bang up job as a Puerto Rican(!!) villain(with a heart, sorta...). Bale as the Menendez Brother from hell is effective too. I liked Richard Roundtree, Pat Hingle and Gordon Parks' cameos(look fast for him, as Mr. P in the bar!)

This one isn't meant to be taken too seriously, the car chases and shootouts are right outta anything Dirty Harry has done-but you know, John Singleton sez he intended for this to be a popcorn movie, and I agree, he has hit the bullseye with this.

And that Isaac Hayes score, gotta love it!

*** outta ****, go see it and have fun.

Shaft (2000)

This comes so far after the original "Shaft" in 1971 you might hesitate to call it a sequel. It's more like a revival, or a nostalgic time trip. Except that it's all been updated nicely, with a feeling of the original sassiness intact. And the Isaac Hayes music is central, and terrific, making this a legit Shaft movie.

Samuel Jackson plays the role perfectly, not pulling back and not overdoing it. The idea of a black cop in a city that still has racial biases, in this case emphasizing the rise of Latino drug lords as part of the fracturing, is mainstreamed here. It's not as daring or shocking to see this pushed forward, but it's still effective. Shaft, the main character (who never seems to have a first name), is powerful, smart, and unwilling to be pushed around by authority. Even if it means losing his job (or quitting--Shaft is always the one making his own choices).

The director, John Singleton, is not especially well positioned for a mainstream sequel with high production values (his one famous effort to date is "Boyz n the Hood"), but he pulls it off. This is a snappy, smart, well made movie. It's oddly mainstream, playing with clichés too easily, working with bad guy good guy tenets adding only the minor twist of racial or ethnic alliances, though even these we've seen before. You can't help but see "Jackie Brown" from three years earlier as a far more interesting, well made, and timely movie. That one was by Quentin Tarantino, which changes the score a bit, but it starred Jackson, again, and makes the most of him.

You might say Singleton makes the most of Jackson here, too, but a better way to look at it is that Jackson makes the most of Singleton. He takes over the movie, and it's a good thing. He has talent and presence in a classic Hollywood acting way. The cast around him is really strong, which is nice. (There is a cameo by the original director of the 1971 "Shaft," Gordon Parks, in a bar scene, if you are lucky--a white haired older black man at the table.)

The other terrific actor is Jeffrey Wright, playing a drug king with enough realism and panache to make it real and glitzy both. The third main character is the future Batman, Christian Bale, who is a great bad guy and who you actually miss in the last parts of the movie.

What really brings this down to earth, and too much so, is the story, which is boilerplate stuff. There is machismo, and guns, and a play of one bad guy against another, and one cop against another. You might say, hey, isn't there room for more cop and crime movies that work in familiar circles? Yes. But I again refer to "Jackie Brown" as a way to see out of this box.

This new "Shaft" is good stuff--it's well acted, tightly edited, directed with professional canny (noticeable in lots of different ways), and brings up racial clichés in a fun and even important way. It descends by the last third into overused chase and shoot scenes between cops and robbers. But...it's better than its reputation, for sure. I say see it. Enjoy the attitudes. The acting. And the homage to the original.