SHAFT

Does anybody really remember the original Shaft? I don’t mean the super cool Isaac Hays theme song; I mean the film itself. What was it about, what was the plot? No idea? Me neither. One thing for certain, Shaft wasn’t a very good film. And Shaft the character (with all due respect to Richard Roundtree) was not very interesting. Billed as a cross between Sam Spade and James Bond, John Shaft wasn’t written with the wit and finesse that made those two characters so successful. Shaft was dry. But Shaft was also the first black action hero (if you don’t count Woody Strode and Jim Brown). That made him special and turned the Shaft films into box office favorites of the early ‘70s.

John Singleton’g Shaft 2000 doesn’t have much to do with the original. It’s not really a remake or a sequel. In fact this Shaft isn’t even the same guy. Played by Samuel L. Jackson, Singleton’s Shaft is the ‘70s Shaft’s nephew. Roundtree even has a distracting cameo that runs way too long. Anyway, the young (Jackson and Roundtree look to be pretty much in the same age group) Shaft is cop who is both liked and hated by his fellow detectives. I say this because the film never seems to settle on a definitive viewpoint here. The relationships between Shaft and his colleagues simply change from one scene to another depending on the demands of the story. Maybe they’re just jealous of Shaft’s Armani leather and designer facial hair? Of course, Shaft is a rebel. When a racially motivated murder investigation goes wrong, he instantly hands in his badge and becomes… a street vigilante of some sort.

I love Sam Jackson. He a wonderful actor and a charismatic leading man. That’s why it’s so strange that he comes off just as flat and un-interesting as the old Shaft. I wanted to like this movie… hell, I wanted to love this movie. But it didn’t work out that way. The main problem may have been the film’s tone. Never deciding whether it should play it straight or funny, Shaft just sort of meanders between various genres throwing in an occasional shootout or a cool one-liner. All this moves along to the sounds of the old Isaac Hays score, that’s become a ridiculous cliché by now. And if you expect some really cool action, you’ll be disappointed. After Metrix and MI-2, this stuff looks like “movie of the week”.

What saves the whole film are its villains; Jeffrey Wright and Christian Bale. These guys have some hilarious scenes together that are bound to become classic. Without them Shaft 2000 would be a total waste of time.