Shaft (R, 2000)

Director John Singleton, whose "Furious" character in Boyz N the Hood shared a lot of Shaft's outlook, has updated the movie and the character. This is a story about John Shaft (Samuel L. Jackson), the nephew of the original Shaft (played again in this movie by Richard Roundtree), who is so far from his private detective uncle's commitment to independence that he is a policeman. But when a corrupt system lets a rich racist murderer jump bail, Shaft throws his badge at the judge like a ninja weapon and goes out on the street to see that justice is done.

This movie gets four stars just for coolness. Samuel L. Jackson, the Armani leather coat, and the Oscar-winning theme song are a match made in heaven, and it is just plain summer-popcorn-movie fun to see them all work it together.

The script is uneven and filled with holes, showing evidence of reported on-set disagreements between the producer, director, and star. Reportedly, too, Jeffrey Wright's performance as drug dealer Peoples Hernandez was so exciting that the movie was reworked to give him more screen time. That is easy to believe, because he is electrifying. That contributes, however, to the difficulty in managing all the plot threads. Efforts to bring the two bad guys together, the Dominican drug dealer and the preppy racist (Christian Bale) may provide some interesting moments, especially when the drug dealer starts networking in a holding cell, asking the preppy for his business card, but it slows the story down. But Singleton knows that when things waver, all he has to do is cut back to Jackson and the theme song to keep the audience happy, and it works remarkably well.

Studio: Paramount Pictures
Director: John Singleton
Cast: Christian Bale, Samuel L. Jackson
Genre: Action/Adventure
Run time: 99 minutes
Theatrical release: June 16, 2000
DVD release: December 12, 2000
MPAA Rating: R
MPAA explanation: strong violence and language