*** out of **** Year: 2000. Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Vanessa L. Williams, Christian Bale, Jeffrey Wright, Busta Rhymes, Toni Collette, Dan Hedaya, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Richard Roundtree. Written by John Singleton & Shane Salerno (story) and Richard Price (story & screenplay). Directed by John Singleton. Rated R.
Coolness is hard to attain. It's really not something you can learn: Richard Nixon spent much of his administration trying to figure out how to be cool, and he failed miserably. What's worse, he wasn't the only one. No matter what they do, there are some people that just can't be cool. Martha Stewart can't be cool. Barry Manilow can't be cool. Pat Boone, despite his most bizarre efforts, can't be cool. John Shaft, on the other hand, was one cool motherf***er. He was played by Richard Roundtree, and Richard Roundtree is cool. The new edition is played by Samuel L. Jackson, and Samuel L. Jackson can't help but be cool. His Shaft 2000, nephew to the original, fights a war against all the seriously uncool enemies trying to bring him down. The bad guys might claim money or racism as their reasons for going after Shaft, but make no mistake; the bad guys are against Shaft because they're jealous of his ultimate coolness. Can you dig it?
Shaft 2000 is most definitely a new Shaft; this film goes to great lengths to explain that Jackson's John Shaft is the nephew of Richard Roundtree's original, and *not* the same guy. He's angrier, perfectly willing to punch a suspect in the nose right in front of all his supervisors. His sense of humor is a bit stronger: he enjoys making threatening movements towards criminals, watching them jump, and laughing at them. He's also been updated for the new millennium. Uncle was a "sex machine to all the chicks," but the new guy was obviously brought up with a slightly more modern worldview. He respects women and keeps his distance, though he doesn't mind a bit of flirting now and then. This is a good choice -- the 1970's Shaft held a rather cavalier attitude towards sex that simply wouldn't fly in today's HIV-infected society. Shaft 2000 may be a flaming heterosexual, but he's not stupid. Secondly, a "sex-machine" version of Shaft wouldn't work with Jackson in the role. We all know Jackson is an actor of many talents: his line readings are perfect, making even the clumsiest passage of dialogue bearable, and when he's really on (as in the scripture-quoting scene in "Pulp Fiction"), his unmatched intensity can galvanize an audience like no other. Jackson, in most ways, is a far better actor than Roundtree ever was. But Roundtree had something that can't be taught: sexual allure. He has it; Jackson doesn't.
Therefore I find it amusing to read several critics expending great energy writing long-winded analyses that all boil down to one complaint: not enough sex. If this were a remake, I'd see where they were coming from, but "Shaft 2000" is very much a sequel, and as such, the new Shaft is in no way required to mimic his predecessor. Director John Singleton has gone on record as saying that he wanted to update "Shaft," and it's a good idea. The original 1971 film has many good elements, but it's also badly dated. Nowadays, it exists mainly as a cinematic relic, historically important to the development of black film, but not terribly relevant to contemporary society. The 2000 version updates the dialogue and attitudes, but keeps the issues that made "Shaft" and its fellow blaxploitation movies important.
Shaft is still a character that fights not only against criminals, but against an indefinite, institutionalized force. While his superiors make thinly-veiled racist remarks to him, Shaft watches a rich white punk (Christian Bale, in a one-dimensional, but effective, performance) get away with killing a young black man because of his wealthy connections. Shaft vows to bring him to justice, quitting the police force. But he's now got to contend with crooked cops, a local crime boss, calling himself Peoples (Jeffrey Wright, strangely compelling despite a caricatured accent), who wants to expand his drug trade uptown, and an eyewitness who won't testify in court out of fear for her life (Toni Collette). Singer Vanessa Williams and rapper Busta Rhymes give Shaft support as, respectively, an old partner and a loudmouth Rastafarian sidekick.
As in most action movies, "Shaft 2000" draws up a very clear line between who is a "good guy" and who is a "bad guy." Here, it could not be simpler: the good guys are cool and the bad guys are not. Shaft is cool, obviously. Ditto Uncle Shaft (the original, played again by Roundtree). Other characters are cool by their willingness to hang with Shaft. The bad guys, meanwhile, couldn't be cool if their lives depended on it. Christian Bale's character may have lots of money, but he wouldn't know coolness if it jumped up and bit him in the ass. He's thoroughly outclassed in a restaurant by the young man he eventually murders, and watching him stroll through the 'hood, with his cap pulled forward and his collar turned up, he could not be more of a square. Peoples wants to be cool, but his goofy accent and even goofier entourage keep him from attaining his goal. Dan Hedaya plays half of a crooked-cop team, and there's no way this guy can be cool. He played *Nixon* (in 1999's "Dick"), for God's sake! Shaft, meanwhile, thrives on cool; he does things a person of lesser cool wouldn't even bother trying. His coolness makes him invincible. What else then do we require of an action hero? Shaft is ideal because nothing fazes him. Under pressure, he always keeps his head.
All of this is neatly packaged by director Singleton. The plot is simple and easily comprehensible, the action scenes are exciting, and there are bits of humor spread here and there to keep things from getting too somber (Busta Rhymes provides the most amusing moments). So what if the conclusion seems to come straight out of nowhere in particular, and the characters' motivations are about as subtle as a shovel to the forehead? What really matters is that the new John Shaft stands as a fine example of how to be a cool action hero. As for his movie, it's cool too.
-reviewed by Shay Casey
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