Sean’s movie thoughts

The new Shaft is reportedly really bad. I guess I am glad that I did not go to see it. Is it really as bad as reviews suggest? I have only seen one positive review so far and that critic might be a bit generous from my previous experience reading his reviews. Samuel L. Jackson returns as John Shaft from 2000’s Shaft and Jessie Usher as John Shaft Jr aka JJ. John is worried/afraid that JJ is not macho enough and possibly gay.  (That sounds homophobic for a movie made in 2018.) Richard Roundtree returns, briefly, as the original John Shaft. This new movie reportedly remixed the Shaft theme. Someone needs to go to movie jail for that and never get out. I considered going to this movie but after the really average Men in Black International, I was not up for another movie in theaters so soon.

Samuel L. Jackson stars as John Shaft, the nephew of the original John Shaft (Richard Roundtree). John is a cop and one day he is called to a murder scene. It turns out a rich young man (Christian Bale) killed a young African American male outside a restaurant/bar. Bale’s character jumps bail and John throws his badge at a judge. John becomes a private eye like his uncle. Bale’s character comes home to find the only witness to his crime, a waitress at the bar. (This dates the movie a bit, I think in today’s New York there would be security cameras around and therefore footage of the crime). He meets up with a drug dealer played by Jeffery Wright and enlists Wright to find the waitress. Jeffry Wright and Christian Bale are good in their roles. They have some nice scenes together. Jackson is good as Shaft and it is nice to have Richard Roundtree make a cameo.  This is enjoyable but not special. It is nice to hear the classic Shaft theme.