Les nouveaux exploits de Shaft

The second outing concerns about Shaft , the African-American independent eye-private . This time confronts sinister mobsters , battling black (again Bumpy, Moses Gunn) and white (Mascolo , Joe Santos) gangs . Fiercy Shaft finds a dead friend , a brother his sweet-girl , he ran under legitimate business , a funeral home and all types of insurances , however he hid stakes issues in Queens . Two-fisted Shaft in order to avenge his friend , vows revenge and investigates the deeds . Meanwhile , a police captain (Julius Harris) suspects on Shaft . Extremely tough Shaft spontaneously encounters himself in the middle of a bands war and running afoul of the underworld .

This one features thrills , hair-raising suspense , raw energy , nudism, adult subject matter and lots of violence . Plenty of intrigue, kinky sex and noisy action ; Shaft keeps things moving along , until final fight on a pier with a breathtaking pursuit by helicopter . Violent , tough screenplay by Stirling Shilliphant based on characters created by Ernest Tidyman . Great and enjoyable musical score by the same director Gordon Parks in Isaac Hayes style , recently deceased. Hayes's theme song stills resonates today .

Followed by superior third part 'Shaft in Africa (John Guillermin)' with Vonetta McGee and Frank Finlay ; besides contemporary and revisionist version by John Singleton (2000) with Samuel L. Jackson and as secondary Richard Roundtree as Shaft's uncle . Furthermore , seven television episodes (1973 , 74 years) starred by Roundtree . The Shaft series turned out to be one the best black films from the early 70s.

Private Investigator "John Shaft" (Richard Roundtree) is back and this time he is trying to find the murderer of his friend who was running a numbers game in Queens. As it so happens the victim's partner "Johnny Kelly" (Wally Taylor) had gambled away $250,000 and a mob boss by the name of "Gus Mascola" (Joseph Mascolo) wants it back-along with a 50% share in Johnny Kelly's numbers racket. However, Johnny Kelly has other plans and decides to double cross Mascola by getting another mob boss from Harlem named "Bumpy Jonas" (Moses Gunn) involved in the same deal. Not only does he hope for a war between the two mob bosses but he also wants John Shaft killed in the process too. Now, rather than reveal any more of the movie I will just say that this was an adequate sequel to "Shaft". While it started off pretty well it got bogged down toward the end with an extremely long chase-and-gunfight scene which I thought actually detracted from the overall effect. In any case, although it wasn't bad necessarily it still wasn't nearly as good as the original. I rate it as average.

I'm not sure what went wrong with this sequel to 'Shaft'. Once again Gordon Parks directs, Ernest Tidyman writes and Richard Roundtree stars, but there's something missing. It isn't anywhere near as entertaining as the original and the story is very thin and padded out. The score isn't as good either. Isaac Hayes only contributes one number, Parks himself does the rest. Moses Gunn and Drew Bundini Brown reprise their roles as Bumpy and Willy and blaxploitation fave Julius W. Harris ('Superfly', 'Black Caesar') appears as a cop who forms an uneasy alliance of sorts with Shaft. Also check out future soap star Joseph Mascolo as a clarinet playing mobster called, er, Mascolo and Joe Santos later of 'The Rockford Files' as his right hand man. Richard Roundtree is still super cool as John Shaft and he helps make this movie to be fairly enjoyable. Personally I prefer the third in the series 'Shaft In Africa' to this, but if the truth be told neither sequel is a patch on the original which in an undisputed blaxploitation classic and essential viewing for any 70s buff.

Just recently, I've been yearning for some quality blaxploitation, but have lucked out with my last couple of choices: TNT Jackson was a completely dreadful Coffy wannabe and The Black Cobra, starring Fred Williamson, wasn't even a proper blaxploitation (that'll teach me not to do my homework first). This time around, I was more careful with my selection: Shaft is the cool cat who never disappoints (just ask the long line of ladies he leaves in his wake!).

In this, his second adventure, the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks (once again played by Richard Roundtree) becomes involved in a gang war after an old friend is blown to pieces by a bomb. As John Shaft sets about settling the score with the killers, he gets sexy with a few hot mamas, proves tasty with his fists, blows away some bad guys (resulting in some nice 'n' bloody gunshot wounds), uncovers a hidden stash of cash, drives a speedboat at high speed and shoots a helicopter out of the sky. It's not exactly groundbreaking stuff, but it is hugely entertaining, with great characters and winning performances all round, some impressively mounted action sequences (the bigger budget really shows), several pretty ladies jiggling their bits around, and that all important funky score.

The 1971 film of "Shaft" helped to save "M.G.M" from facing bankruptcy, so naturally they commissioned a follow-up movie. Titled "Shafts Big Score" and released in 1972, the plot is what defeats this film. The scenes look as though they were hastily thrown together with no sense of continuity. I could hardly decipher what was happening from one scene to the next and I know I'm not alone here. The action scenes aren't bad but they can't compensate for a narrative that is very weak in its structure. For some reason which is only known to a handful of people, a further "Shaft" film was made!