Shaft Review

John Shaft, the nephew of a famous private eye of nearly 30 years ago, is a New York cop on a sufficiently high salary to afford trendy Armani outfits, When wealthy Wade, played by that famous American Psycho Christian Bale, kills a black guy outside a restaurant, a judge allows him out on bail and he skips the country, while waitress witness Toni Collette goes into hiding. Two years later, Wade returns and is again out on the streets, in league with drug lord Peoples Hernandez, Jeffery Wright. A frustrated Shaft quits the force, but, as the song reminds us he`s the man who won`t cop out 29 years after Richard Roundtree played the original John Shaft, Uncle of the protagonist of this new film, that same Isaac Hayes music and that same attitude is on display again. Samuel L Jackson positively oozes charisma as Shaft Jr, though you do worry that he might not be as upright and honest as he seems - how could he afford that slinky gear? Roundtree turns up in a nice touch to give his nephew advice. The original film wasn`t as smooth as this one, but it was a lot more entertaining; the new Shaft is a fairly routine exercise for director John Singleton, who had bitter arguments with his star during the shoot - but it`s worth seeing for the performances - baleful Bale as the bad, rich white guy, perversely engaging Jeffrey Wright as the Manic drug lord, Toni Collette as the frightened lady who has to be protected and Jackson himself as the ultra cool chip off the old block. Yes, a bit of guilty pleasure