The original Shaft was a cool cat who scored with all the chicks while blasting away the Mafia. When I first heard that Samuel L. Jackson was cast in the lead,
I was excited. I was disappointed when I saw a picture of him-I was expecting a fro like he wore in Pulp Fiction. Also the various set rumors caused me to worry
about the quality of the movie.
Christian Bale kills a black guy because he was made fun of. Samuel L. Jackson is onto him and smacks him around a bit before resigning his badge. With the
help of Richard Roundtree (the original Shaft), Jackson keeps his hands full with renegade cops, Christian Bale, and a Hispanic gang leader.
While parts the movie are slow, on the whole Shaft has a good pace to it. Unfortunately, Shaft really doesn't score in this movie! He does in the opening
credits and it is implied at one point in the movie, but nothing is shown. If it's Shaft's duty to please that booty, can't we see some of it like in the older Shaft films?
Christian Bale basically does his American Psycho shtick in another accent while the Hispanic gang leader is really good. The two villains created a lack of focus in the
movie though-they should have dropped the gang leader because he wasn't essential to the plot or just have used him as a supported villain. Also Richard Roundtree
is very misused in this movie-his charisma could have taken the movie that much farther.
I give Shaft **1/2 out of ****.

Shaft really wasn't as bad as I had expected it to be. I had been looking forward to this movie, when I first heard that it was being made, but I didn't expect it to be good. The movie was a little cheesy. but I have to say that I did enjoy it. I liked that it wasn't a simple remake, but more of a sequel to the originals. I liked the fact that there were more than one villian. If a sequel is made, I hope it features more of Richard Roundtree.

*** out of ****