Shaft
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Vanessa Williams, Christian Bale,
Busta Rhymes, Jeffrey Wright, Toni Collette, Dan Hedaya, Richard Roundtree
Directed by John Singleton
What can I say about Shaft? What a movie. Being the kind of gal who would normally choose any "chick flick" over an action/adventure/stereotypically "male" kind of movie, I wasn't sure what to think going into this one. I was so pleasantly surprised. Leaving the theater the only bad thing I could think of was how I was going to have a hard time saying anything bad about this movie at all.
The movie revolves around the life of John Shaft (Samuel L. Jackson), a detective for the NYPD. Shaft arrests Walter Wade Jr. (Christian Bale) at the beginning of the movie for killing a black man outside a club. Wade, your stereotypical 20-something, rich, playboy type, posts bail and flees the country. Two years later, Shaft once again arrests Wade when he attempts to sneak back into the country. After posting bail a second time, Wade teams up with a Dominican drug dealer named Peoples Hernandez (Jeffrey Wright) to try and stop Shaft from finding the eye witness to the murder (Toni Collette). Shaft teams up with fellow police officer Carmen Vasquez (Vanessa Williams) and friend Rasaan (Busta Rhymes), while Wade and Peoples enlist the help of two corrupt police officers to try and reach the witness first. Richard Roundtree, who played John Shaft in the original movie, appears as Shaft's uncle. Can't tell you too much more without ruining something for you�
Let's get the bad parts over with so we can talk about why this movie was so good: basically, there wasn't anything bad about this movie. The one thing I would say is that I do not understand why in movies all the bad guys get serious machine guns and the good guys get tiny little one-bullet-at-a-time guns. Makes no sense. You would think they realize there are better guns out there. But the fact that this is the only bad thing I can think of to say about this movie should tell you something�
OK, enough of that, how about the good parts:
� Samuel L. Jackson-this guy is so amazing. He impresses me film after film. His character in this movie hit me kind of the way James Bond hits me: there is no way one guy can be so smooth, but he just is. Jackson has the edge to pull off the angry-at-the-world/chip on the shoulder John Shaft.
� Christian Bale-he pulls off the spoiled rich kid part so well. Halfway through the movie I hated him so much I wanted to kick him in the face, and when a movie can make you hate the bad guy that much, then it has done its job.
� Great script-this movie had a little suspense, a little drama, and a whole lot of comedic relief. I was entertained throughout the entire movie.
� Great supporting cast-they were all funny and contributed to the overall success of the movie.
There are so many more good things to say, but I don't think you want to spend the rest of the day reading this review�I would strongly encourage you to see this. It is entertainment at its best.
Grade:
Molly
