{"id":10621,"date":"2025-01-14T23:55:34","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T04:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=10621"},"modified":"2025-01-14T23:55:34","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T04:55:34","slug":"shaft-2000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/01\/14\/shaft-2000\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaft (2000)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Shaft <\/strong>(2000)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 99 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong violence and language, brief nudity, drug content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John Singleton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Richard Price, John Singleton and Shane Salerno\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: David Arnold\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Donald E. Thorin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 16, 2000 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Vanessa Williams, Jeffrey Wright, Christian Bale, Busta Rhymes, Dan Hedaya, Toni Collette, Richard Roundtree, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Josef Sommer, Lynne Thigpen, Philip Bosco, Pat Hingle, Lee Tergesen, Daniel von Bargen, Mekhi Phifer, Francisco \u201cCoqui\u201d Taveras, Sonja Sohn, Peter McRobbie, Zach Grenier, Richard Cocchiaro, Ron Castellano, Freddie Ricks, Sixto Ramos, Andre Royo, Catherine Kellner, Angela Pietropinto.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $70.3M (US)\/$107.2M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0Who\u2019s the cat that won\u2019t cop out when there\u2019s danger all about? I\u2019m talking about Shaft<\/strong>. Can you dig it, baby? Right on!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Okay, those aren\u2019t the exact lyrics to Isaac Hayes\u2019 Oscar-winning theme song to the classic 1971 blaxploitation actioner, but they express the same idea; the idea that John Shaft II, like the uncle for whom he\u2019s named, is one bad mother. Shaft<\/strong> is NOT a remake; it\u2019s a sequel to the Shaft movies of the 70s- Shaft (1971), Shaft\u2019s Big Score (1972) and Shaft in Africa (1973). Richard Roundtree reprises his role as the black private dick who would risk his neck for his brother man only this time he\u2019s a supporting character. Taking the lead in this Shaft<\/strong> is Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction) who plays his nephew John Shaft II, an NYPD detective who plays by his own rules. Is there any other kind?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Let me just say that I LOVE Shaft<\/strong>! It\u2019s a gritty, super-violent, kick-ass action flick about an angry cop who takes the law into his own hands after the system fails yet again to deliver justice. In this instance, it\u2019s an arrogant, racist, rich white boy, Walter Wade Jr. (Bale, American Psycho), who flouts the legal system. He murders a black guy (Phifer, Clockers) outside a nightclub after exchanging words with him inside. Of course, it\u2019s a racially-motivated killing. Shaft arrests Wade after an eyewitness, waitress Diane Palmieri (Collette, The Sixth Sense), points him out. Shaft gets transferred for punching the handcuffed Wade a couple of times. Wade is released on bail and flees to Switzerland. Diane disappears. It looks like all hope is lost for justice.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Two years later, Wade returns to New York on a private jet and is promptly rearrested by Shaft. He throws him in a cell with Dominican drug lord Peoples Hernandez (Wright, Basquiat) who tries to strike up a rapport with his well-off new cellmate. In court, Wade is once again granted bail. Thoroughly disgusted and righteously pissed off, Shaft quits the force right then and there by throwing his badge at the corrupt judge (Hingle, Sudden Impact) like it was a Chinese star. He decides to bring Wade to justice his own way unencumbered by the rules of the legal system. No badge, no rules. He intends to locate the missing witness and convince her to testify against Wade. Realizing what Shaft plans to do, Wade hires Peoples to find and kill Diane before Shaft gets to her.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One of the things I love about Shaft<\/strong> is how it brings the gritty cop flick of the 70s right into the new millennium. It has a distinctively old school look with all the blaxploitation trappings- dirty streets, dangerous neighborhoods, big cars, drugs, dealers on street corners, gold chains, corrupt cops, racism and yet-to-be computerized police stations. There\u2019s this one scene at a car wash that feels like it belongs in a 70s blaxploitation movie. The character of Shaft himself is a throwback to an earlier time when cops like Dirty Harry took care of business. They didn\u2019t concern themselves with trivial matters like civil rights. If somebody breaks the law, they\u2019re going down one way or the other. Usually, it was \u201cthe other\u201d. Seeing how the system consistently fails his people in favor of white privilege, Shaft gives it a figurative middle finger by quitting the force and going rogue. He\u2019s clearly anti-establishment. At the same time, Shaft<\/strong> has a modern sensibility with great lines like \u201cIt\u2019s Giuliani time!\u201d, a line uttered by our hero as he prepares to go to war with People\u2019s people.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As Shaft, Jackson is FREAKING AWESOME! No actor possesses his level of swagger. Yes, Mr. Roundtree will forever be the definitive Shaft. He redefined cool with his stylish threads, groovy demeanor and insatiable sex drive. He was also a total bad ass. Jackson\u2019s Shaft takes after his Uncle John in many ways only a bit more complicated as he struggles to reconcile black with blue (\u201ctoo black for the uniform, too blue for the brothers\u201d). He\u2019s helped by a solid supporting cast that includes Vanessa Williams (Eraser) as a narcotics cop who helps Shaft, rapper Busta Rhymes as Shaft\u2019s driver\/Guy Friday, Dan Hedaya (The Hurricane) as a dirty cop and Lee Tergesen (Oz) as a racist cop Shaft semi-jokingly calls \u201cCracker\u201d. Busta, in particular, brings comic relief to the proceedings.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Bale is excellent as the obviously sociopathic son of a wealthy real estate developer (Bosco, Blue Steel) who fully believes the law doesn\u2019t apply to him. Wright, affecting a believable Dominican accent, is equally good as the small-time drug lord with big aspirations. These two characters form one of the most interesting relationships in Shaft<\/strong>. Wade comes to Peoples with a proposal. Peoples sees it as an opportunity to expand his business into more affluent areas of the city. He proposes an exchange of services. He\u2019ll murder the witness in exchange for Wade fronting for him in places he has access to that Peoples doesn\u2019t. Listen to the way they talk to each other. Look how they size each other up. Their words and attitudes are subtly menacing. It\u2019s never certain who has the upper hand.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Director John Singleton (Boyz n the Hood) does an amazing job with Shaft<\/strong>. It doesn\u2019t strike a single wrong note. Everything about it works. It even has an actual opening credits sequence featuring Hayes\u2019 iconic theme song (rearranged a bit). The soundtrack is completely contemporary with the best cut being R. Kelly\u2019s \u201cBad Man\u201d. The action scenes, car chases and shoot-outs are well-mounted. The plot isn\u2019t at all complicated. It doesn\u2019t try too hard to make a social statement. Shaft<\/strong> is exciting, thrilling and even humorous. It has a lot of cool violence. In one scene, Shaft pistol-whips a dealer by way of convincing him to leave a neighborhood kid alone. There are many shootings. It has the most satisfying ending since 10 to Midnight. Shaft<\/strong> is just GREAT! I dig it. Right on, man!\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shaft (2000)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 99 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong violence and language, brief nudity, drug content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John Singleton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Richard Price, John Singleton and Shane Salerno\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: David Arnold\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Donald E. Thorin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 16, 2000 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Vanessa Williams, Jeffrey Wright, Christian Bale, Busta Rhymes, Dan Hedaya, Toni […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10788,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kick-ass-actioners"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Shaft-2000-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10621"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10790,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10621\/revisions\/10790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}