"KEEP BUSTIN'."

Shaft (2000)

Going in I didn’t know WHAT to expect. A remake? A sequel? The ads made it look silly and ridiculous. Like not so much a remake as a big screen adaptation of the Shaft theme song.

But then I never thought Shaft was the god damn word of the lord or anything. He’s a cool character and I like his work and what he accomplishes with the ladies but I never thought his pictures had the same emotional depth of Superfly or The Mack or Blacula. Maybe it’s because those are movies about outlaws instead of a law enforcement figure like a private eye. Or maybe not. I think you kind of had to be black at that time to know what it meant to finally see a black James Bond character like John Shaft. But at the time, just as now, I was a white man.

So I was open to some noodling and fiddling with the Shaft character, but to my surprise it is a surprisingly faithful update with hardly any shenanigans. It is a pretty serious story of Shaft trying to catch a racist murderer rich boy bail jumper played by none other than the American Psycho from the film American Psycho starring Patrick Bateman. The tone of the picture is a very strange and enjoyable cross between gritty police stories like Clockers and the Homicide television program and the more corny ’70s tv shows like CHiPs. So the violent scenes are grim and disturbing but you still got a foot chase or two with Shaft chasing a dude up and down fire escapes fueled only by wah wah guitars.

The reason I like this picture is mostly the ’70s feel. The only Isaac Hayes song they used is the main theme, but the score is all extrapolated from the style of that piece. And Shaft is a character with a combination of qualities you just don’t see all at once anymore. He is the guy who always looks cool, always knows how to trick somebody or kick somebody’s ass something good, is single and open to sharing his charms with many ladies, and who also is sensitive and supportive to the point of sainthood. During the court room scene, he is sitting behind the mother of the victim, rubbing her shoulders and telling her everything is gonna be okay. You almost think he is a guardian angel.

ShaftOne of the writers was actually Richard Price, the white individual behind both the novel and the screenplay Clockers. So that is why there is a cameo by Mekhi Pfeiffer, the actor who got his start starring as the yoohoo drinking fellow in Clockers. In fact there are many cameos in this film. Sonja Sonj, the poet and love interest from Slam appears as a friend of Shaft’s who is going to go home and screw him. Bonz Malone also from Slam appears briefly as a character named Malik who gets his ass whooped by Shaft. Gordon Parks also has a cameo. Not sure what he has to do with Slam but he did direct the original Shaft, so why quibble?

The one guy who doesn’t get a cameo is Richard Roundtree, the original Shaft. And that is because he gets an actual supporting role. I suppose he is only in a handful of scenes but he plays Shaft’s “Uncle J.” And the big mystery is, is this supposed to be THE John Shaft, the uncle of Samuel Jackson John Shaft? Or is he just an uncle whose name begins with J and Jackson is playing the one and only John Shaft that ever existed in the universe of this picture?

Well the answer is in the end credits which calls Richard Roundtree “(Uncle) John Shaft”. So what we are dealing with here is a picture that alleges that John Shaft has a nephew who is just as cool a private dick as he is. And that is one of my favorite aspects of the picture.

You see, all the great cinema icons have nephews. I am talking about individuals like Mickey Mouse. Individuals like Popeye. And etc. I will be looking forward to the next Shaft film which hopefully will have Shaft’s three nephews John Shaft, Don Shaft and Han Shaft.

But seriously gang it is nice to see the original Shaft not just brought back for a condescending cameo but actually helping out the new Shaft. And wearing the same black leather coat and white turtleneck. Apparently he had other scenes that were cut but I really hope he will be back for the next one.

I suppose the big question is, does Samuel Jackson pull it off? And the answer is yes. This is one cool individual, and his bald head and immaculate leather outfits ain’t hurting. In the beginning I was a little worried because he was a cop. And there is some pretty touchy stuff in there where he is framing people and beating them and all the garbage that cops do in real life, but it’s supposed to be cool.

Fortunately, the writers paid attention to the theme song and remembered that Shaft is a private dick. So he quits the force in one spectacular courtroom scene and then the movie starts smokin.

There are definitely things you could quibble about. I thought Jeff Wright, the individual playing the Dominican drug lord, was a little too over the top and phoney in his portrayal of a Latino. I know the dude has been getting rave reviews, but jesus. And by that I just mean “jee-zus.” There is even a scene where he’s yelling “Vaminos! Vaminos!” to his henchmen.

Also there are some things that I didn’t think made a whole lot of sense. Like why would Christian Bale threaten the witness when all he did so far was beat a guy up. And why would he have a New York accent during all of the scenes at the bar but not in the rest of the movie. And if Peoples is just “a two bit, two block drug dealer” then why can’t they arrest him when they find his buddy dead outside his broken apartment window with People’s beloved icepick in his chest?

But I mean jesus. The point is this is a fun and unique and badass picture. It has alot of funny shit and a pure sense of melodrama and larger than life machismo that you don’t really get very often these days. I would highly recommend this picture, if you don’t watch it I don’t know what is wrong with you fucks. thanks.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 16th, 2000 at 3:28 pm and is filed under Action, Crime, Reviews, Thriller. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

16 Responses to “Shaft (2000)”

  1. Believe it or not and I say this as a kid who grew up with and around Dominican street cats Jeffrey Wright’s portrayal was VERY accurate. So scarily so I remember I saw this with my dad and uncle and they thought he was actually Dominican and were shocked when I told them he was actually Black.

  2. Just rewatched this after a short discussion about it, after the news that there will be a Tim Story directed remake.

    Honeslty, I’m shocked that this one doesn’t get more love. It’s immensely entertaining, has a kick-ass cast and even 17 years ago (God, I’m old…), movies about loose cannon cops, who just try to solve a case instead of saving the world from terrorists, were almost non-existant!

    Yes, it’s super cartoony, but that’s a huge part of its appeal. Especially that it takes place in a world full of colourful (no race related pun intended) characters! You have Shaft II, who inherited all his coolness and integrity from his uncle, who even gets a scene where he leaves a bar with two women! The crazy Dominican drug dealer threatens people while he takes a shit and has a brother who acts like a big kid. The scared eye witness has two gigantic body builders as brothers, the white cop who randomly uses racist slurs is actually a pretty cool guy who helps Shaft with an illegal gambit and a part of me even hoped that the two crooked cops get out unharmed, simply because it was so much fun to see them react to all the shit that hit the fan. Christian Bale has pretty much the most thankless role, but even he gets a moment, where he chews out his dad for giving his mom’s jewelry to either his young, hot stepmom or his dad’s whore of the week.

    Nowadays Hollywood and critics keep talking about “worldbuilding”, which often just means “This movie references shit that will go down in the sequel”, but THIS is how you build a fun world! Just add a new, entertaining character in every god damn scene!

  3. I’m with you CJ. I really enjoyed this one and remember it being decently liked at the time. Then within like two or so years I started hearing “What were they thinking with that SHAFT remake/sequel/reboot/thing?!” I think even Christian Bale did an interview before BATMAN BEGINS came out where he said it was a mistake for him to be in it. I rewatched it around that time and still thought it was a solid cop-who-doesn’t-play-by-the-rules movie. Last I heard the new SHAFT was going to be one of those parody remakes like that STARSKY AND HUTCH movie, so maybe those who didn’t like the Sam Jackson one can be happy now. I just hope the trailer has: “from the visionary director of TAXI and FANTASTIC FOUR… No not that one the other one, the one you forgot they made, yeah the one with Jessica Biel…”

  4. Somehow I think “from the director of BARBERSHOP and RIDE ALONG” will play a little better with the intended demographic.

    I feel bad about Tim Story. I worked on an interview with him, and he seems like a nice, genuine guy with his heart in the right place, and he’s also one of the few consistently successful black film directors out there. But I can’t deny that his work is mediocre at best. I have no faith that his reboot will be any better than the already-bland-as-fuck Singleton version (Sorry, CJ).

  5. Yesssssss…

    Samuel L. Jackson, Jessie T. Usher to Star in ‘Shaft’ Sequel

    After originally planning a full reboot of the ’70s classic, New Line is reverting back to a familiar formula for the next installment of “Shaft,” while also leaving the door open…

    I mean, I still got mixed feelings about Tim Story, but I love the direction that they decided to go.

  6. Yeah I like it too. That means both Roundtree and Jackson are still Shaft. No James Bond shit.

  7. Is it possible for an uncle and a nephew to have the same name?

    I guess it’s possible but still a little odd.

  8. Why should it be impossible? Maybe John Shaft 2 was the son of Original Shaft’s brother, so his family carries the Shaft name on. Or his sister got dovirced and reverted to her maiden name. Or her husband thought “Shaft” is just cooler than whatever name he had and decided to take it.

    And of course, since John is one bad mothershutyomouth, it’s obvious that they would name their son after his uncle!

  9. I mean, it’s definitely MUCH more possible than twin cousins!

  10. If your uncle is your father’s brother, you and he are likely to have the same last name. If he is your mother’s brother, it is less likely but still not uncommon.

  11. Speaking of Samuel, he seems to be having the time of his life in the otherwise so-so THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD.

    (It’s impossible not to watch it without thinking he’s kinda playing an older Jules Winnfield. If he hadn’t decided to walk the earth, etc).

    I think this might look like the most fun he’s had on screen since SHAFT, maybe.

  12. Man, I’m having very mixed feelings about the trailer for the sequel. I suspect that there is a good chance that the movie is a lot less jokey than they sell it to us. Maybe they showed us all jokes, that will be in the movie! But damn, this looks like someone read a Wikipedia entry about the MCU, thought “I never saw any of these movies, but I guess they are comedies, so let’s make Shaft into a comedy” and then went wild.

    On the other hand, I won’t pretend that I didn’t laugh at anything they put in the trailer

  13. I believe when the movie was originally announced it was said that it was going to be a comedy, and director Tim Story has done almost entirely comedies. It seems from the trailer that the joke is that the new Shaft is a terrible Shaft, right? It does seem kind of funny though.

  14. This is the first time that I hear about it being supposed to be a comedy, so that’s why it caught me offguard. All I knew was that it was apparently first planned as remake, before they made it a sequel.

    Also now there are three movies named SHAFT and they are all sequels! At least in case of HALLOWEEN, one is a remake! Soon sequels won’t have any numbers or subtitles in them.

  15. The co-writers are sitcom writers which is why this movie looks like a fucking sitcom.

  16. I just learned that the new movie will go straight to Netflix over here next month. That doesn’t give me high hopes, although it could be just because of “Hollywood thinks Europe doesn’t care about black cinema” reasons (although the last Sam Jackson SHAFT was pretty successful over here, if I remember right).

Leave a Reply





XHTML: You can use: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>