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Shaft review
:. Director: John Singleton
:. Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Christian Bale
:. Running Time: 1:39
:. Year: 2000
:. Country: USA
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John Singleton's (Boyz in the Hood) revamping of Shaft hits you in all the right places. It's an action/drama with enough doses of comedy to keep you entertained. The shower of bullets and tongue in cheek humor drives the pace of this homage-to-the-original but faithful-to-the-modern day summer blockbuster that‘s sure to please fans of Samuel Jackson, Law & Order, social commentary, and car chases.
Bravo to Samuel Jackson. He's as smooth and stylish as Bond and exudes the searing energy Nicolas Cage could before he got lazy. Jackson's John Shaft is the nephew of the original renegade private detective of the early seventies who's now working as a police detective in NYC. He's basically a good cop with his heart in the right place. Tragically, the producers decided to desexualize him from a booty man in the tradition of his uncle Shaft to a mere high octane ass kicker. Still, spending a few hours with John Shaft this summer is more enthralling than losing precious life energy with Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise in MI:2) or the moronically named Memphis Raines (Nicolas Cage in Gone in 60 Seconds)
While Richard Roundtree's Shaft battled the man, our Shaft's plate is just as full. Shaft's main problem revolves around Christian Bale's character, the uber privileged Walter Wade Jr., who murders a black patron outside a trendy bar by brutally clubbing him. His father's cash and connections get him out of the country. Two years pass, Wade Jr. returns, and Shaft is disgusted with the force and lack of justice when a drug bust goes wrong. He leaves the force to pursue justice solo-against racism, crooked cops, and drug dealers. Shaft doles out justice the way he sees fit, so there's more blood and less warrants.
A rather lengthy sub-plot involves tracking down and getting Diane Palmieri (Toni Collette—The Sixth Sense, Muriel's Wedding) to testify. On Law & Order, it wouldn't take so long- here it seems like an arbitrary decision to add 30 minutes to the film by repeatedly going to her mother‘s house in hopes of finding her. While this slows the film down, the car chases speed it up a notch.
Singleton's characters verge on being over the top caricatures. Peoples Hernandez, a Dominican heroin kingpin with a penchant for ice picks a la Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct and a deep love for his family also longs to climb the social ladder. He's almost too much, although his humor does bring counterpoint to the shoot out scenes. White racist prick murderer is played to perfection by Christian Bale, whose evilness in American Psycho pervades onto this screen.(FYI—Bale and Collette were last seen together in Velvet Goldmine.) Busta Rhymes should not leave his day job—here he plays the Rasta sidekick who comes in to save the day. Conversely, Singleton gives the women more earthiness than the excessive male characters. Vanessa Williams plays Carmen Vazquez, who does not appear to speak any Spanish but remains steadfastly faithful to Shaft's cause. Oddly, Toni Collete's character, the working class bartender who spied Bale killing the bar patron, is given more in-depth coverage than any of the other characters except for Peoples Hernandez. We see how someone desperate and fearful ticks, but as for Shaft, Wade, Carmen, and the others we don't get much insight.
The second degree social commentary also makes the movie intriguing. When Wade and Peoples get together an interesting subplot pops up. People's yearns to be more than just a street thug with lots of cash and panty-and -bra clad girls in the back room cutting up his heroin. He wants in on Wade's circle, not just to sell drugs to them, but to be accepted by them. Singleton delivers an unexpected meditation on class conflict in a chasing-the-bad-guys-with-style movie.
A major fault is the following: when John Shaft says "It's my duty to please that booty", it's tongue in cheek. Not literally though-because we see no booty in the movie. The opening credits are a big ole tease because Shaft gets nothing—a huge departure from the original Shaft. There were reportedly many L-O-V-E scenes left on the cutting room floor, and the producers ended up weakening the movie as a result. Given a choice between sex and violence, I'll take the sex. On the other hand, today's Shaft is notably different. It‘s the year 2000 and hip hop culture is all the rage. "The man" is more likely to be listening to music and wearing clothing modeled on urban streets and not his suburban neighbors. At the same time—summer movies are made to please the burbs and everyone else across the board, which inevitably means watering down the plot and banking on a big star. Shaft is lucky to have Jackson.
Anji Milanovic
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