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  • Is it age appropriate?

    About our ratings

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    Not age appropriate for kids under 14, age appropriate for kids over 16; suggested age 15.
  • Is it any good?

    4.0
  • Common Sense says

    A guilty pleasure for adults and older teens.

Why We Rated This iffy for Ages 15–16

What to watch out for

  • Messages:

    A theme of the movie
  • Violence:

    Lots of peril, lots of shooting and fighting, some deaths
  • Sex:

    Some non-graphic scenes and references
  • Language:

    Many, many uses of the f-word
  • Consumerism:

    Not an issue.
  • Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

    Drinking and smoking, scenes in bars, character is a drug dealer
 

What Parents Need to Know

About Shaft

Parents need to know that this movie has incessant use of the word "f--k" and graphic violence, including self-inflicted ice-pick wounds and lots of punching and shooting. A character is blatantly racist and another is a drug dealer. Especially troubling is a conclusion that is surprisingly supportive of vigilante-style solutions, despite indications that even Shaft believes that this time the system will result in justice.

Read our full review by Nell Minow

Did this review help you decide?

Families Can Talk About

  • Families can talk about how Shaft knows when to follow the rules and when to break them, and what would happen if someone with a less perfectly honed sense of justice were to break as many rules (and noses) as Shaft does.

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