Shaft

Rating:
Summary: Still a bnad mofo
Review: I wasn't alive for the original but it remaianed a classic to me. Lerarning Sam Jackso would be in the remake I was overjoyed. This DVD is My pick as Movie of 2000. Hard hitting action and a take no $h@t attitude Shaft represents what we all wish we could do and take on the problem head on instead of getting lost in the shuffle by the police. With a hillarious side kick in bustarymes and None stop actin, Peoples Hernandez was great. Highest possible recommendations, it's the feel good movie of the year!

Rating:
Summary: ROBOSHAFT
Review: I like a lot director John Singleton and I had appreciated BOYZ'N THE HOOD some years ago. The interviews proposed as bonus features in the DVD made me understand that John Shaft is a kind of icon for a certain number of american viewers. In short, John Shaft is cool and can kill the bad guys without an ounce of guilt like Harry Callahan or James Bond. One cannot fight against a cultural icon so I won't.

The screenplay of SHAFT being as hollow as the ones we have to swallow by the dozen each year on television, I was hoping that John Singleton would adopt a different and maybe revolutionary style in his filmmaking in order to fulfill the hopes I had in his directorial skills. After 10 minutes, I knew that it was hopeless : you cannot fight against an icon and John Singleton hasn't. So SHAFT is going to join the hundreds of Hollywood action movies released in 2000 and will be forgotten in no time. Rent it, like me, if you have 2 hours to lose on a rainy sunday night. If not, skip it.

A DVD zone Starsky & Hutch only.

Rating:
Summary: Could have been so much more.
Review: I know that Samuel L. Jackson made more movies in the last decade than anyone, and maybe that's why this movie is so ordinary. In his haste to get into every movie being made, Jackson must have forgot to actually look at the script for this film. As always Jackson gives a terrific, larger than life performance, but he had so little to work with that the movie seemed beneath him. The Shaft franchise has so many possibilities, but it soon turns into a confusing mix of shallow characters and sub plots.

It all starts with the assault (turned murder) of young African-American man outside an upscale nightclub. We know within five minutes of the opening credits who committed the crime (A rich spoiled white guy who's daddy would never let him go to jail.), so there is very little suspense or mystery there after. Soon you see Jackson in a courtroom consoling a woman you must assume is the murdered young mans mother. I say assume because they never actually tell you if she is or even what her name is. Fed up with the corruption surrounding this case and so many others Shaft quits the police force and vows to get justice his own way. From there the movie goes on to be confusing and way to hard to believe.

I expected much more from a movie with Sam Jackson in it, but I can't fault him because he didn't write, direct or produce it. You have got to love the addition of Richard Roundtree to the cast but, Vanessa Williams as a tough city cop? I am huge Vanessa Williams fan but come on people, lets at least try to keep it real. Overall Shaft is a huge disappointment, but I give it three stars for the presence Samuel L. Jackson brings to the screen and for including the real Shaft (Roundtree) in the film.

Rating:
Summary: Samuel L. Jackson. Shaft. Nuff said.
Review: OK, so that's a rehash of one of the tag-lines ("Samuel L. Jackson. Shaft. Any Questions?") but it seems to sum things up for me. This is probably the most fun I've had in a movie so far this year. I am a big blaxploitation fan, and Jackson is an actor that I will watch a mediocre movie just to see-especially if he plays a bada$$.

I won't bother giving a plot sypnosis, except to point out that Jackson portrays not the original 70's Shaft, but Shaft's nephew, which I thought was a brilliant touch. The best part of that is, Richard Roundtree gets to reprise his role as the original, and they have some great scenes together. Some people have complained that Roundtree wasn't in the film enough. Though I wouldn't have minded if he'd been around more, I thought he had just the right amount of screen time and scenes. My favorite was when he visited a party thrown in Shaft's honor, has a nice talk with him, then leaves the Lenox Lounge with a foxy chick on each arm and a big smile on his face (not to mention being dressed to the nines). Besides, this movie belongs to Jackson, and he owns it completely. Though he's done many memorable roles, I think this will be the one he's remembered for.

The supporting cast is great -Christian Bale and Jeffrey Wright both play thoroughly unlikeable yet entertaining bad guys, with Bale as a spoiled, racist yuppie and Wright as a drug dealer with an accent that makes Al Pacino's in Scarface sound whitebread. This is a pretty testosterone-filled movie (not that there's anything wrong with that )so there's not an especially strong female supporting cast, but the women in the film are great. Gloria Rueben of ER has a nice cameo that I'm sure most actresses would have played for free, short though it is-in fact, they probably could have auctioned the small role she has off to the highest bidder. My only complaint is that they didn't get Pam Grier for a cameo- she would have been great in Vanessa L. William's role, but even more perfect as the bartender in the party scene.

There's not enough room for me to list all the things I loved about the movie & admired the filmmakers for doing. However, some of the top ones: they use the ORIGINAL Isaac Hayes theme and not some horrible 'updated for the new millennium' remix, the way Shaft is especially furious about abuse of women and children, Busta Rhymes as Shaft's comic-relief sidekick, the fact that none of the good guys in the film ever refer to a woman as (synonym for female dog) or hoes, the way no theme or scene seems 'dated' (sadly, even today an interracial couple trying to have a nice evening on the town will still have to deal with racism) and the exceptionally satisfying way all the nasty characters get what is coming to them- justice is definitely served in the end. Man, I hope they make this into a franchise - the crowd-pleasing epilogue, with the theme music kicking in, definitely leaves room for one.

I'm ripping off this comment from another review I read, but I have to repeat it: I'd happily pay the price of admission just to see Jackson read the phone book for 2 hours as this character. Needless to say, the movie is much more exciting than that. Action scenes are great, the plot was fine, even including twists I didn't expect, and the dialogue was perfect. Going to see the movie, I was a tiny bit concerned- as a lot of other fans probably were- that the character would turn into too much a caring, sharing watered-down Shaft, but no-one needed to worry. It would have kind of detracted from the character to see him hopping into bed with a different chick constantly throughout the movie like James Bond.

One of the few references to Shaft's sex life is also probably my favorite line in the movie. A good-looking female bartender, lonely not just for sex but for someone to hold her, is about to hook up with Shaft at the end of the party scene, telling him among other things that "it has been a long time". Shaft gives her a nice slow smile and replies as only Samuel L. Jackson can: "You know me...It's my duty to please that booty."

Any Questions?

Rating:
Summary: Dolomite was better than this remake!
Review: OK, it has been a couple months since I saw "Shaft" in the theater. However, I distinctly remember laughing out loud at how stupid the plot was and how unrealistic some scenes were. Samuel Jackson could have been great in this film if the script had been there (that is why I went to see it in the first place). Unfortunately, the script is WRETCHED. They could have come up with a more realistic and believable crime at the start of the movie to set the wheels of injustice rolling. Do people really bludgeon other people to death on the street right outside a crowded bar because they are dissed in front of their friends? When the first shooting/car chase takes place, you have to suspend your belief because it seems ridiculous. The gangsters seem fake, and the relationship between Bale and the drug dealer rings as false as the "count every vote" mantra of good old Al G. I wanted this film to be good, but alas I couldn't even find the silver lining.

Rating:
Summary: The most non-intellectual film ever created
Review: As I sit and watch, I can only wonder what Samual was thinking when he agreed to do this film. I don't think he read the screen play, I hope he didn't read the screen play. I thought Romeo Must Die was the worst film I ever saw, this beats it hands down. What did they do gather the stupidest people involed in film in one room, lock the door. Spoon feed them large quantities of Cocoa Puffs, and then tell them there not allowed out, until they write the new Shaft movie? This is what happens when you eat those little packets you get in the pockets of new jackets and shoes, you know the ones that say do not eat on them. In order for them to write that on it someone had to have tried to eat one of those and complained, or sued the company. The amount of stupid people on this Earth is staggering. I wouldn't be surprised if you people had to concentrate in order to breath. This movie could also be the result of spray painting without proper vetilation while smoking a joint and taking a hit of acid coated with strict 9. It's apparent that they need to open a fresh can of talent in hollywood and it has my name written all over it.

Rating:
Summary: It's the audience who gets the shaft...
Review: John Singleton has shown that he can be an exciting director. Samuel Jackson is(usually) an acting god. So what went wrong here? Well, a cliche-ridden script, phoned-in performances and an overdose of gratuitous shootouts certainly didn't help. What is the point of casting wonderful actors like Toni Colette and Christian Bale, then giving them cartoonish,one-dimensional characters to work with? Jackson seems uncomfortable and never quite "inhabits" Shaft...he leans too heavily on recycling his various Tarantino characters.The filmmakers went out of thier way to tell anyone who would listen that this was NOT a "remake", yet they cynically recycle Isaac Hayes' award-winning score, and throw in cameo appearances by Gordon Parks and Richard Roundtree for a bid at cinematic "street cred". Unintentional laughs abound from Jeffrey "Basquiat" Wright's low-talking, lispy Latino drug lord,who ties reigning champ Benicio DelTorio (in "The Usual Suspects") for Most Unintelligable Speech By A Brando Wanna-Be.

Rating:
Summary: He is the man, Shaft
Review: Shaft is GREAT!! Samuel L. Jackson acts so good. The way he pictures Shaft that beats everything. He is still the man. The story is good too. A recommender!

Rating:
Summary: "I thought it was a spoof"
Review: This film had one thing going for it--it was completely laughable! I thought it was a spoof like the naked gun series but then I read the box and it was a serious film. What a joke. The plot was non-existent.

The arch villian, "peoples" was an idiot. The bonehead crooked cops couldn't catch a shoplifter if they cornered one in a K-Mart restroom.

Unbelievable....

Rating:
Summary: SHAFT
Review: Gangsta...SHAFT...isn't a super cop but a true gangsta cop watch out ICE-T (New Jack City.) With the mix of stars from Samuel L. Jackson to the sultry Vanessa Williams, and the sleeper Jeffrey Wright gives this film the motion needed to define the word motion picture. If your looking for the classic piss off all the brothas, and all people unite this is the flick for you. The film is generally funny with pure action and funk. A film you will study word for word, and memick scene for scene. If your mouth piece seems to be missing some humor and you need to learn how to be the life of the party, "SHAFT" is your guide!