Harlem, New York. Notoriously dangerous, gang-infested, drug-infested, trash-ridden and unsorted. Of course someone has to take charge. Shafter is one such character. Once a policeman, he turned private detective when he realised he couldn’t be a good cop. In terms of intelligence, he’s certainly not as smart as the experimental genius with a similar name. In terms of skill, he’s definitely not as good as the teenager who uses his skateboard like a sports car. But when it comes to skin colour, you have to admit that he beats our crescent moon. Well, enough of that. Probably out of love, or maybe he wasn’t concerned about safety, he and his girlfriend Maya got a son out of it. Originally, the two had come and gone unattached, naked or not. Now there’s a problem. The mysterious local drug lord has always seen a thorn in Shafter’s side and sends someone over there every now and then to get rid of him. It just so happens that this day the two men are in the car discussing the sorting of rubbish and come again.
The result, naturally, was that the killer took his lunch and, incidentally, advanced the plot – Maya, scared to death, took her son and left Harlem, while Shafter stayed behind to try to uncover the mysterious drug lord. A few dozen years have passed since then. Son JJ (Jesse Usher) has grown up and is working as an FBI data analyst. Like most young men, he is energetic and motivated, but uninitiated and unaware of the human condition.
One day, his best friend is found dead near a drug dealer’s den in Harlem. The police found that he had died of a drug overdose and the case was closed. But JJ always felt that something was wrong. The night before the case, it was clear that his friend had been acting in a different way. But no one believed him, so he went to find out for himself. This JJ was also a tiger. He went to the drug dealer’s den alone to find out what was going on. He was lucky not to die. The way he was acting, it was clear that he knew something. But he would never tell the police, and JJ didn’t think he was tough enough. But then it occurred to him that he had a father who was a bully in Harlem. So, when a good student meets an old socialite… The car, naturally, was a mess.
Just after opening the door, he bumped into a sister of unknown size baring her breasts and enchanting her eyes. Before he could react, another gun was put to the back of his head. Looking back, Pops had a mouth full of gold foil and was obviously busy.
What follows is something you can probably guess even if I don’t dramatise it. What JJ is investigating is connected to the mysterious drug lord that Pops has been tracking for so many years. The two bicker and partner up, turning their investigation into a parent-child activity, and in the process dismantling the drug cartel in Harlem… All told, the ‘Shaft’ IP has been made for almost half a century. It’s been a long and difficult journey. The first film, shot in 1971, was a huge success. Not only did it end up making over $13 million at the box office on a budget of $500,000, saving MGM, which was on the verge of bankruptcy at the time. It also won the 44th Academy Award for Best Original Song and was included in the US National Film Registry. There are many other awards to mention, so I won’t go into them again.
The first Shaft: Richard Landtree
After this, MGM grabbed the iron while it was hot and released two other sequels to Shaft as well as a serial. Unfortunately, neither was well received. After being shelved for over 20 years, the IP was rebooted by Paramount, with the addition of the future Director and Batman. As for the plot… Let’s not mention it. Anyway, it ended up doing poorly at the box office and the word of mouth was disastrous. Once again, the project was shelved.
Shaft 2000, the second generation of Shaft
Then came this one, produced by New Line Cinema and distributed by Warner and Netflix. The box office performance was still mediocre, but word of mouth was kind of picking up. The audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes is 94% (the critics’ score is still low). More audiences are loving it. But in my opinion, some of the qualities that made Shaft so hot in the first place have been quietly abandoned. The first is sex. This was most obvious in the first film. It was only 1971 and the film was made boldly enough, erotically and darkly.
The 1971 version of Shaft
By the 2000 version, it was already starting to get superficial. It was directly titled with a titillating and disorienting video. At first glance, spring still seems to be in full swing. But when you watch the whole film, you realise that the opening credits have nothing to do with the content of the film.
Shaft 2000
And now this version – the film hasn’t given up driving, but it’s got a bike instead. It used to rely on action, now it relies on talking. And I don’t know if that’s good or bad. When his son comes to him and wants to ask him for a favour, Shaft is so pleased to hear it that he pulls out a roll of banknotes and wants to give it to his son: sure enough! A tiger’s father has no son! Tell me, how much does it cost to have an abortion? The gifts he gives his son get more and more thoughtful every year: at 10, he tells his son to take safety precautions, at 18, he gives him a VIP voucher to a club you know, at 20, he gives him his own treasured dating guide… So much so that it’s no surprise that Pops later confronts his son about his sexuality in the street. The second thing about Shaft is that it’s violent. Or rather, an atmosphere of danger, which is also gone in the latest version. Even the dichotomy between good and evil in the first two versions gives way to a father-son bond in the film, with the villain reduced to complete accompaniment.
The 1971 version of ‘Shaft’
There are still action scenes, to be sure. But most of them are comic sequences. At the end of the film, for example, it’s cool to see all three generations of Shaft on the same stage, killing the enemy and flying a rope into a den of thieves. But this glass in front of JJ may be thicker. The violence, and the danger, is subdued. On Douban, the first two Shaft films are still categorised as action/crime/thriller. By this one, the crime action is still there, the thrills are gone. It has basically turned into a comedy-based drama. More like… If you remember the 2017 film where the old Chief was in it with Deadpool. Yeah, more like an all-around downgraded version of that one. Maybe it’s time for Shaft to transition in 9102. But even so, I think this one is worth a look. For one thing, it’s in the personal touch of the old director. Although he is too old to fight, he holds the whole film together with his own mouth. What is mentioned in this article is just the tip of the iceberg. To be honest, this kind of mouthpiece role actually suits him quite well. You’ll remember. The bible-thumping, chatterbox killer. One user summed it up well: others are “may the force be with you”; he is “may the motherfucker be with you”.
On the other hand. Oh sorry, there is no other side. In fact, as a matter of fact, the main character of the show should not have been Samuel L. Jackson. Since the whole series goes in the order of the old and the young, the youngest generation should have taken on more of the plot and tasks in the new version. Nah dad is too fierce. With three generations of Shaft walking the stage together, a thousand words, the biggest drawback of this film cannot be separated from two words – Cliché. A tale of good triumphing over evil, of partners working together to solve a crime, of watching the beginning and knowing the end. Moderate, unexceptional camera work and scene scheduling. There are no tears, and the laughs are hardly highbrow. But anyway, the viewership doesn’t lie. I watched it in one sitting anyway, as I’m sure the thousands of people who have rated it on Rotten Tomatoes must have done. As a sequel to Shaft, it doesn’t quite live up to its essence. But as an action comedy, it’s definitely up to snuff. The summer is hot and July is a drama drought.
