Shaft

Shaft

2000 "Still the man, any questions?"
Shaft
Shaft

Shaft

6 | 1h39m | R | en | Adventure

New York police detective John Shaft arrests Walter Wade Jr. for a racially motivated slaying. But the only eyewitness disappears, and Wade jumps bail for Switzerland. Two years later Wade returns to face trial, confident his money and influence will get him acquitted -- especially since he's paid a drug kingpin to kill the witness.

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6 | 1h39m | R | en | Adventure , Action , Thriller | More Info
Released: June. 15,2000 | Released Producted By: Paramount , Scott Rudin Productions Country: United States of America Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:
Synopsis

New York police detective John Shaft arrests Walter Wade Jr. for a racially motivated slaying. But the only eyewitness disappears, and Wade jumps bail for Switzerland. Two years later Wade returns to face trial, confident his money and influence will get him acquitted -- especially since he's paid a drug kingpin to kill the witness.

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Cast

Samuel L. Jackson , Vanessa Williams , Jeffrey Wright

Director

Dennis Bradford

Producted By

Paramount , Scott Rudin Productions

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Reviews

EBJ Overall: Pretty bad movie and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I was very bored and it is just not a good movie. Definitely skip it.Good: Samuel Jackson and Christian Bale do good jobs with what they have throughout the movie. Some other minor characters did a good job also. I really liked the music and thought it blended well with the more 80's cop side of the movie.Bad: The movie feels pointless due to the 'shock' ending twist which makes me feel as if I had wasted my time watching it. It is good to see him punished but I would have preferred for him to see the inside of a cell. The characters are just sheer unlikeable or you don't care or they have no real motivations. It also don't feel like it knows what it is. One side you've got the goofy 80's cop show feel with groovy music and cheesy dialogue while on the other side you've got the uber serious story featuring themes of race and discrimination. Not to say that serious comedies can't work but if that was the intention it was done abysmally. The action scenes were horrific and just bored me throughout them, especially the final climax. The movie tried to cram in too many characters when a protagonist, antagonist and 1-2 cop buddies would have sufficed. Also unless I missed the scene in which he rejoins the police force then I refuse to let it slide that he broke the law numerous times and got away with it.Best Part: The opening 20 minutes were they catch Bale made me interested in the story and were they could take it but that interest was short lived.MVP: Samuel Jackson as John Shaft3/10
Michael_Elliott Shaft (2000) ** 1/2 (out of 4) The son (Christian Bale) of a rich real estate businessman kills a black man and skips town but Detective John Shaft (Samuel L. Jackson) enters the game and will stop at nothing to see justice brought to him. This leads to a back and forth battle, which involves gang members and crooked cops.SHAFT works as both a sequel and a remake to the 1971 film. The Shaft that Jackson is playing here is actually the nephew to the one Richard Roundtree played in the original series. Roundtree is also on hand for a few scenes in this film, which is certainly great to see. With that said, John Singleton had a pretty tough battle because he was basically making a blaxploitation movie in an era where you really couldn't get away with the same stuff that you could in the 70s.Back in the 70s it was a time for politically incorrect stuff and that's certainly not the case here. Even the story line of the murderer doesn't feature the "racist whites" that you'd expect to see. For the most part I thought this film was entertaining for what it was but there's no question that there were some flaws. The biggest is how "big" the story got. I really didn't find the crooked cop angle to be all that interesting and even the stuff with the gang members wasn't all that compelling.The film works the best when Jackson and Bale get to go at one another. Both actors are extremely good in their parts and it's a shame that the screenplay didn't keep the focus on them since they are the best things in the picture. Jeffrey Wright is wonderful in his role as a gang banger and Toni Collette is also extremely good. We also get nice supporting performances by Dan Hedaya and Pat Hingle. Busta Rhymes is here playing himself so I'll let you be the judge on that.There are some nice action scenes scattered throughout the picture and there's a lot of great laughs early on but for some reason the screenplay went away from the sly humor as the film went along. SHAFT isn't the perfect remake but it's a mildly entertaining film.
grantss Pretty good. Good action and reasonable plot. The vigilantism is not overdone, unlike some movies with similar plots. Samuel L Jackson is great in the lead role. However, almost stealing the show Jeffrey Wright and Christian Bale, who play the bad guys. Both are excellent in their roles - Wright is particularly funny.Good support from Busta Rhymes, Vanessa Williams, Toni Collette and Dan Hedaya. The original Shaft, Richard Roundtree, makes a cameo appearance.Worth watching.
Spikeopath Remakes do work occasionally, case in point Shaft, John Singleton's update of the 1971 Blacksploitation movie that starred Richard Roundtree as the title character. Roundtree gets a part in this one as well, playing the uncle of Samuel L. Jackson's title character, John Shaft.It's the perfect role for Jackson, lashings of cool and menace, on his bulky shoulders dose the film easily rest. Plot finds Shaft turning in his badge after the law proves useless to let racist murderer Walter Wade Junior (Christian Bale a sneering villain but awesome looking in a tux) out on the streets. Shaft vows to bring Wade to justice, by any means necessary. Though he also has other things on his plate, namely Latino drug lord Peoples Hernandez (Jeffrey Wright a riot) and some less than honourable police officers.The screenplay is a little trite, but as an action movie, one with the coolness and sparky humour, it really hits the required spots of those just after such easy minded fare. The support cast is a roll call of sound performers with the likes of Vanessa Williams, Dan Hedaya and Toni Collette fronting up, while the awesome ebullience of Busta Rhymes is very infectious.Isaac Hayes gloriously famous theme tune is still in place, pumped up by composer David Arnold, which ensures the feel of the original isn't lost, and Donald E. Thorin's photography is pin sharp and in turns gorgeous (night shots) and streetwise gritty. Shaft, the 2000 version, still bad-ass and sadly under appreciated. 7/10