Pretty run of the mill stuff, but since it’s the only action movie in the last five years to never once feature a slow-mo shot of a character horizontally leaping with two guns blazing, I give it a ten out of ten.
I thought it was a pretty weak movie. There were no good jokes and the action scenes weren’t all that great. It didn’t even have the attitude of the original Shaft movie.
Marc
I thought the throwing-the-badge-and-it-gets-stuck-in-the-wall-scene was sort of hokey…Similar to slo-mo guns blazing…I give it 7 out of 10.
I think it’s rather sad that it has absolutely in common with the original. They cheapened it drastically by making it just another action flick. Just terrible.
Nothing in common?!? But he’s black!!
I liked it.
Christian Bale was one badass villain; his speech to the drug dealer was bristling with WASP menace. Of course eventually Shaft served him a big plate of buttery soul street justice.
Let me just say that I worship the ground that Richard Roundtree walks upon. I think the SHAFT series is the highest quality, most influential, most overlooked-by-the-general-public series of Blaxploitation films of the 1970s.
Therefore, I was concerned when I learned that Samuel L. Jackson was reprising the role. What are we adding to the Shaft pantheon here?
Well, it turns out that Jackson is not reprising the role. In fact, the original John Shaft plays an entertaining role in the new film, as Sam Jackson’s uncle.
Singleton’s work is a moody piece with ambiguously moral characters, not unlike the original, and with a dead-on slimeball of a bad guy who juxtaposes the dead-on badass of Jackson’s character. But, it’s a Singleton film, no question about it, so we have to enjoy the meanders as well as the straight parts.
Like the originals, story is subservient to the powerful persona of the lead role. If you, the viewer, miss that important point, you’re not going to like the film. The film isn’t about John Shaft taking on the bad guys in action-hero-like ways. It’s about John Shaft, period.
Unlike virtually all of the vomited-up sequel and do-over films of the last ten years, this one has respect for the originals. The original story line is unaltered. In addition to Roundtree, original director Gordon Parks and score-writer Isaac Hayes also get cameo appearances, as well as Singleton himself. Hayes’ awesome theme song is largely unaltered, but it is also incorporated into a modern, low-key background score. And the central idea of the Baaad Mothershutyomouth as the object of entertainment is kept and continued.
For these reasons alone this film is exceptional, but I also happen to love Samuel Jackson’s acting. That’s the icing on the cake for me.
So yeah, I like it a lot. It fits in perfectly with the originals, and sort of requres an understanding of the originals in order to fully appreciate it. If you liked it, why not check out Shaft, Shaft’s Big Score, and Shaft in Africa and see if this one doesn’t fold over them like a nice warm blanket?
And if you didn’t like it, well, you probably won’t like the originals, either. Of course, if you don’t, you’ll never be able to say, “don’t let your mouth write a check your ass can’t cash” with the proper gravity.
it’s my duty to please that booty! as far as i’m concerned it’s a classic for that line alone, and sam jackson deserves an oscar for being able to get the line out without laughing his ass off.
however, i always preferred dolemite to shaft myself
And he’s also one bad mother-… **Shut your mouth **
That’s why it was crap. If it had had that shot, they could have put it in the trailer, and loads more people would have trudged numbly in to see it, and it’d have been a major international success.
I think it’s pretty crappy.
I rented the original after I saw this one and was much taken by the Richard Roundtree version.
I remember it being relevant to the seventies, with all manners of moments that would’ve offended all the right people and would’ve compelled almost everyone. Shaft’s potty mouth, Shaft seducing a white woman, the white woman having some sort of character, Shaft not smiling like he’s invulnerable all the time, etc.
This one didn’t have many redeeming qualities. I remember watching Samuel L. Jackson acting and thinking, wow, he’s just smiling a lot because he knows he’s supposed to play a supercool badass who never cops out when trouble’s all about.
The drama and character moments were of such disjuncture to the “Jackson smiling 'cause Shaft always wins” scenes preceding them that they seemed like mood swings in a really flaky plot.
When the Samuel L. Jackson version was rewinding, this was the discussion in the house:
Roommate: “Well, that was a smoldering pile of–”
Me: “Shut yo’ mouth.”
Roommate: "I’m jus’ talkin’ 'bout Shaft.
Me: “I can vomit.”
Maybe you had to be there.
When I first saw that movie, I suddenly remembered that Bart and Lisa were singing the theme as kareoke on one episode:
Jeffery Wright as the drug dealer was pretty good. Christian Bale was more complex and interesting then the standard “white makes right” villian. And the opening credits have a “what the heck was that!” quality. Other than that it was fairly pedestrian.