Ensofter Overrated and overhyped

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Time Saver They had the funds, they had the means, they had some good acting crew, they even had a fine reputation of the previous Shaft, but somehow they managed to make only half a movie - the second half is barely watchable.The first half goes quite smoothly, introducing us with the main characters and the main plot. Samuel L. Jackson is a great choice for the role of Shaft, but even his flawless appearance couldn't make this movie special, or even above average.This new Shaft lacks cunning and authority, making him nothing more than a regular cop who is trying to right the wrongs. And that would be just fine if the whole bunch on nonsensical and absurd things didn't occur in the second part of the movie. As if all the following events were just randomly piled upon each other, still connected with the story, but lacking common sense. All of that just made me indifferent about how the movie will end.Still, it's watchable, but don't expect anything special and overly exciting.

Michael_Elliott Shaft (2000) ** 1/2 (out of 4) The son (Christian Bale) of a rich real estate businessman kills a black man and skips town but Detective John Shaft (Samuel L. Jackson) enters the game and will stop at nothing to see justice brought to him. This leads to a back and forth battle, which involves gang members and crooked cops.SHAFT works as both a sequel and a remake to the 1971 film. The Shaft that Jackson is playing here is actually the nephew to the one Richard Roundtree played in the original series. Roundtree is also on hand for a few scenes in this film, which is certainly great to see. With that said, John Singleton had a pretty tough battle because he was basically making a blaxploitation movie in an era where you really couldn't get away with the same stuff that you could in the 70s.Back in the 70s it was a time for politically incorrect stuff and that's certainly not the case here. Even the story line of the murderer doesn't feature the "racist whites" that you'd expect to see. For the most part I thought this film was entertaining for what it was but there's no question that there were some flaws. The biggest is how "big" the story got. I really didn't find the crooked cop angle to be all that interesting and even the stuff with the gang members wasn't all that compelling.The film works the best when Jackson and Bale get to go at one another. Both actors are extremely good in their parts and it's a shame that the screenplay didn't keep the focus on them since they are the best things in the picture. Jeffrey Wright is wonderful in his role as a gang banger and Toni Collette is also extremely good. We also get nice supporting performances by Dan Hedaya and Pat Hingle. Busta Rhymes is here playing himself so I'll let you be the judge on that.There are some nice action scenes scattered throughout the picture and there's a lot of great laughs early on but for some reason the screenplay went away from the sly humor as the film went along. SHAFT isn't the perfect remake but it's a mildly entertaining film.

grantss Pretty good. Good action and reasonable plot. The vigilantism is not overdone, unlike some movies with similar plots. Samuel L Jackson is great in the lead role. However, almost stealing the show Jeffrey Wright and Christian Bale, who play the bad guys. Both are excellent in their roles - Wright is particularly funny.Good support from Busta Rhymes, Vanessa Williams, Toni Collette and Dan Hedaya. The original Shaft, Richard Roundtree, makes a cameo appearance.Worth watching.

Johan Dondokambey The story builds it's crime case well, keeping the mystery element existing while revealing new details and small surprises along the way. Yet it kind of throws back at how the focus character seems to be so resourceful and calm at what he's doing. I think the movie should have a more solid backgrounder on how he can do these things. The action side is not that good at all, having too much close up shots and cuts from shot to shot just don't seem to add to the suspense. The acting side also doesn't really offer something. Samuel L. Jackson's acting is surprisingly slightly a bit his own standard here, grinning too much at the wrong times. Christian Bale's upper lip definitely wrecks up his expressions all the entire time. Vanessa Williams can add a color to the story but that's just it.