John
Singleton has been absent from the limelight for quite sometime. After an incredible
breakthrough with Boyz N the Hood, he kept things light with the underrated Poetic
Justice, the meandering Higher Learning, and the virtually unseen Rosewood. Now
he's updated an iconic piece of pop culture.
In
the 70's, Shaft was quite a controversial film. It featured a tough as nails African
American cop as it's central hero, and this was virtually unheard of a the time.
In
the original, Richard Roundtree portrayed the title character, and he actually
plays a supporting role in this film that's really more of an updated continuation
than a remake.
Samuel
L. Jackson is the bad ass this time out, and makes the most of his role, snarling
and taking down the bad guys. Unfortunately, this Shaft is more often than not
an underwritten fiasco.
Part
of the fun in the original, was its obvious amateurish style of film-making. Singleton
tries to infuse the same sort of spirit and rhythm, but in a typical slick, Hollywood
style that sort of destroys the fun.
The
screenplay is also full of one dimensional characters and doesn't make use of
the considerable talents of Toni Collette (The Sixth Sense) and bad guy Christian
Bale (American Psycho). Aside from Jackson, the only one that really goes for
the gusto is nasty Jeffrey Wright (Basquiat) who plays a druglord along the lines
of Al Pacino in Scarface. He seems to take devilish delight in his performance,
and this is certainly one of the most memorable bad guys in recent memory. Unfortunately,
it never really adds up to anything.
Shaft
is a surprisingly dull movie experience even though it seems to have all the right
elements. Jackson's Shaft is certainly cool but not nearly as cool as Jules in
Pulp Fiction.
Singleton
has failed in breathing new life into this great character. I would have much
rather someone digitally remastered the original and re-released it. This Shaft
gets the shaft. CAN YOU DIG IT?
