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Shaft (2019)


Shaft (2019)



7/10



Starring
Samuel L. Jackson
Jessie T. Usher
Regina Hall
Alexandra Shipp
Richard Roundtree


Directed by Tim Story


I can see why this movie wasn’t a hit—it’s so good and so true to what humor really is that the “woke” crowd of this century might have a problem with it. The comedy is natural, and the whole film is a joyride to cinematic promise land. Samuel L. Jackson feels so at home in his character that you totally understand when he implies, “If James Bond were real, he’d want to be me.”

The movie even throws in some hilarious gags, like referencing the time a newscaster mistakenly called Samuel L. Jackson “Laurence Fishburne.” What’s not to like in this movie? The answer: nothing.

The film stars Samuel L. Jackson as Shaft II, Jessie T. Usher as Shaft III, and Richard Roundtree as Shaft (the original). It’s the fifth film in the Shaft series and a sequel to the 2000 movie of the same title, which also starred Samuel L. Jackson.

The plot kicks off in 1989, showing the “equal-opportunity ass-whupper,” Shaft (Samuel L. Jackson), saving his girl and son from a shootout. His girl, upset by the chaos, leaves him and takes their son with her. She raises their son alone, telling him his dad ran off and wanted nothing to do with him. Her way of “raising him right” was making sure he grew up as anti-Shaft as possible.


Fast forward to the present: JJ (aka Shaft Jr.), now grown up and working as a computer analyst for the FBI, is investigating the suspicious death of a childhood friend, which was labeled a drug overdose. Suspecting foul play, JJ dives deeper but ends up on the receiving end of an ass-whupping. Desperate for help, he turns to the one person he knows can handle it—his estranged father.

When JJ shares the details of the case, Shaft quickly connects it to one he’s already working on, involving a drug kingpin. The father-son duo team up, and their investigation leads to bonding moments, with Shaft teaching JJ the ropes. This dynamic is what makes the movie so enjoyable. The witty dialogue keeps you entertained, and when the original Shaft (Richard Roundtree) makes his grand entrance about 20 minutes before the film ends, it’s pure cinematic gold.

There’s no way you can watch this movie and not enjoy it. Everything about it screams for a sequel. But given its lackluster box office performance, I don’t think that’s going to happen.


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