Shaft

I was reminded of Shaft after all these years and was so pleasantly surprised that I had to give him an extra star. It's an honest crime drama that would perhaps be an absolute classic if... if it had been made before or soon after Dirty Harry. It's Dirty Harry that Shaft most resembles – a title character who is at once a rebel, a pragmatist, and a rather cunning fox, an interestingly evolving story, cynical catchphrases and impressive shoot-outs. I'm not familiar with the original series or the film, but even from this "new millennium version", the 70s can be felt far and wide. And that's good. (01/07/2019)

Samuel L. Jackson is perfectly suited for this role, even though it doesn't quite have the punch of the 1970s blaxploitation era. This is just a typical modern action film, with a pretty tough character in the lead role, who you wish was even tougher. There aren't that many memorable lines, but the story is quite intricately woven, even though it culminates in a somewhat expected manner. (21/04/2015)