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SHAFT Send This Review to a Friend
Action, attitude and Samuel L. Jackson are what the new "Shaft" is all about. Jackson has the super-cool attitude, and under John Singleton's energized direction, the script by Richard Price, Singleton and Shane Salerno, smartly picks up on the character that Ernest Tidyman came up with in the book on which the original 1971 black action film was based. Jackson oozes power as the detective who is fed up with creeps and a rich guy who can pull strings to evade the law, and he stalks bad guys with a vengeance, yet always with the sort of charm that easily gets an audience on his side, especially when he is beating the hell out of a punk.
There's comedy to some of the situations, but John Shaft plays for keeps as he searches for an endangered, fleeing witness (Toni Collette) who saw a racist killing by Walter Wade, Jr. (Christian Bale). Shaft is furious that Wade, sassy and obnoxious, is getting away with it, thanks to his influential father and his cronies. In the process he must confront slimy drug dealer Peoples Hernandez, played by Jeffrey Wright with amusing Spanish-accented sleaze. Vanessa Williams has a sympathetic role as a detective on Shaft's side.
There's an awful lot of plot, which sometimes makes the film a bit too strung out. But there's never much time between allowing Shaft, costumed by Giorgio Armani, to do his thing. There's a cheap shot at New York's Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, as Shaft, ready for action, cracks "It's Giuliani time." But it's good for a laugh, as are so many other smart-assed remarks. Racist antagonisms are never far from the surface, and Shaft knows how to handle those too. Of course, there has to be a car chase. After all the bodies are piled up and Shaft is bringing in the witness to testify, look for a switch.
The score, driven by the "Shaft" theme, is a thumping one that helps infuse the film with its constant energy level. There are sentimental appearances by Richard Roundtree, who played the first Shaft, and by Gordon Parks, who directed the earlier film. If action is your game, then Shaft is the name. The idea of resurrecting the 1970s hero certainly works as intended. A Paramount Pictures release.
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