 |
| They say that cat Shaft is one baaad mutha |
Hey guys welcome back to The Tagline! I was thinking, that as a legitimate and respected reviewer of fine cinema, it's important sometimes to take some time out and review a movie that really maintains my reputation. So that put me between two movies, I was on the fence between SWAT and Shaft. I knew I wanted Samuel L. to be in it at least. In the end, SWAT once again narrowly avoided review (I'll do it some day when another crisis of faith springs up) and went with Shaft, a fine film with Busta Rhymes in it if ever there was one. Samuel L. basically stars as himself, a no bullshit ass-kicking cop who quits the force after some racist weasel rich kid beats a guy to death in a bar and gets away with it. Only in this scenario that rich snot is Christian Bale somehow, which in the present Batman age is very confusing for us all, but try and stay with me here folks. Let me give you a quick crash-course in Shaft. In the 1970s (1971 was when the original Shaft was made to be precise) there was this cat named Shaft, portrayed by Richard Roundtree (who actually is also in THIS Shaft movie, as his character Shaft, I'll explain more in a bit) who was a private detective in a Blaxploitation movie successful and indicative of the times enough that it was preserved by in the National Film Registry in 2000. The Shaft I am talking about was made that same year incidentally (2000) and stars Sam Jackson as the ORIGINAL John Shaft's nephew, who was named for him, and so also is John Shaft. He takes a fast and loose approach to law enforcement, so it's no surprise that he ends up leaving so that he can pursue street justice. By which I mean a lot of people get gun-murdered.
