Rating of
2/4
"Shaft" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 01/16/12
Renegade tough guy cop John Shaft sets his sights on an over-privileged racist who murdered an innocent man and skipped bail using his father's influence. The hardest thing to swallow about this film is a bald Shaft, and to be honest it seems like a bit of a cheek to use the name and Isaac Hayes' classic theme tune for what is essentially just another generic cop thriller. However, because of a nice homage to classic Blaxploitation soundtracks and a charismatic performance by SLJ who gamely kicks the ass of racist assholes and smart mouthed gangstas alike, Singleton manages to emulate the flavour of a 70s cop show just enough to make the first half of the film fairly enjoyable. Unfortunately by the end Busta Rhymes and Jeffrey Wright, who are both awful, are afforded far too much screen time and the plot reveals itself to be total garbage. It has enough in the way of decent moments to make it worth watching once, but I certainly wouldn't bother sitting through it a second time.
