Shaft

Shaft stars Samuel L. Jackson as John Shaft, a New York detective. He's tough, he's smart, he's cool, and he's a sex machine - just like his uncle, the original Shaft of the 1970's, played in this film, as always, by Richard Roundtree. Watching this film was a rather strange experience. It was like watching a film in a disco, in a time warp. The soundtrack has a predominately 70's sound, yet the characters on the screen use cell phones. The whole film actually had the feeling of a 70's cop show, right down to the fancy dissolve between each act. Odd, but strangely appealing.

As the film begins, John Shaft arrests spoiled rich kid Walter Wade for killing a young black student in a fight outside a bar. Because Wade's father is rich and a "pillar of the community", Wade is released on bail and skips the country. Two years later he returns, and Shaft is waiting for him. Shaft knows he is guilty of cold-blooded murder, and throws him in a cell. When Shaft humiliates small-time drug lord Peoples Hermandez and throws him in the same cell, the two bad guys start talking. Both of them hate Shaft and want him dead, and both of them are ruthless villains. Meanwhile, Shaft must find the terrified young woman who witnessed the murder and get her to testify in order to prove Wade's guilt. When Wade once again gets out on bail and hires Peoples to kill the witness, the clock starts ticking. Complicate things a little more by throwing in a pair of crooked cops, and the stage is set for an entertaining couple of hours.

Shaft is one of the few films in which we get to see someone using the lavatory, and this time we are treated to some interesting sound effects, as Peoples relieves himself while discussing his drug-dealing business with the unfortunate Wade.

I have only a few gripes about this film. First it contains the usual obligatory car chase-shoot out, which, while very entertaining, was not entirely unexpected. Secondly, I can't understand why Wade came back to the States if he knew he'd get arrested again. And last but not least, the sound of John Shaft's gun is always exactly the same, and for me it became a kind of joke and detracted from the film.

Apart from these minor problems, Shaft is a well-acted, entertaining, action-packed film that I can recommend.