Shaft
Reviewed by David Kashimba

 For all those who loved Richard Roundtree as John Shaft in the first Shaft film in the 1970s, you won’t be disappointed by Samuel L. Jackson’s portrayal of John Shaft’s nephew also named John Shaft. Jackson has a lot of the toughness and finesse that Roundtree brought to the role and he is very cool. But if you’re worried that no one can compare to Roundtree, have no fear. Uncle John is also in the new Shaft.

The latest film has a plausible good guy versus bad guy action plot and we all route for John Shaft and feel a certain satisfaction every time he does something really cool. But Jeffrey Wright, playing pseudo bad guy Peoples Hernandez, really steals the show with his excellent portrayal of a Dominican drug lord. Instead of a one dimensional bad guy, he has a way of showing the many dimensions of someone who finds himself growing up in a life of crime in a foreign country that he quickly adapts to.

Like the original Shaft films, this one has a fairly simple plot but good acting and directing make it entertaining and cool. Unlike the original film, the new John Shaft doesn’t get the girls, but Uncle John hasn’t lost his touch in that department, proving that age comes before youth.

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