Shaft (2019)

Shaft (2019) 

Nearly 29 years too late?  It feels like a bit of a jab toward John Singleton more than anything else.  

After nearly twenty years, Sam Jackson has returned doing the role of Shaft.  I loved the first Sam Jackson Shaft movie.  Heck, it is one of my favorite movies of the time period.  It was a good blend of humor and serious dramatic stuff.  Throw in a good script and great actors and you have a classic that pays tribute to the 70s Shaf as well.  Overall, it was a fun movie.  Despite the behind issues between John Singleton and Samuel Jackson, there should have been a few Shaft sequels  

Shaft (2019) is a misguided sequel to the superior remake/sequel to the 2000 movie.  While the movie retains the R-rating and gun violence, the movie falls into humor trope a bit too much.  It is a bit too silly a Shaft movie.  That’s not to say there aren’t some cool moments, but it just doesn’t have the throwback vibe that the 2000 version had back in the day.   

Why did it take 20 years to make a sequel?  There is too much space between the films.  You needed another movie between the two in order to keep the franchise alive and in the minds of the moviegoers.  And, why did they call this Shaft considering there were two other movies with the name “Shaft”?   

While Sam Jackson is great, Jessie T. Usher is a bit of a weak point as John Shaft’s son.  Usher is playing a young guy from the Twitter age vs. Shaft’s more 90s vibe at taking out crime.  Usher isn’t bad, but not great.  The meek-skinny jeans-wearing dude is an old trope and doesn’t fit in the Shaft universe.  Look, I am one of the people doesn’t get the younger twitter generations, but this movie goes way out of its way to show up these twitter nice guys.  It is way overboard in the voice and shape of Samuel Jackson’s character.  Jackson's Shaft goes a little too much into the "confused boomer" cliche.  I think Shaft is cool enough to understand the changes in generational norms.   He wasn't like this in the 2000 movie.  

Like I wrote before, the villains are boring and weak.  Unlike the 2000 version, these bad guys are bland.  The overall street hood is barely in the movie and isn’t much of a threat like Jeffrey Wright's Peoples Hernandez.   

One of the biggest issues with the tone is the hiring of Tim Story.  Story’s movies lean more toward light-hearted warm stories than gritty cool street crime detective movies.  And, this movie moves away from that quickly into the gags more so.  I know that Jackson always wanted the more comedic elements to Shaft to come forward, so that was probably why they hired Story.  And, John Singleton’s health was severely declining when this movie was being made.   

I should also note that this movie retcons the John Shaft lore in a confusing manner.  Now, the original Shaft is revealed to be the father to the 2000 version of Shaft.  Old Shaft lied to 2000 Shaft that he was his uncle.  Between the 2000 and 2019 films, old Shaft revealed it.  This is a strange reveal because Richard Roundtree is only 6 years older than Sam Jackson in real life.  It makes more sense for 2000 Shaft to be his Why make this change to the lore?   

The 2000 version had a better take on the overall street plot whereas the villains and the main plot is really weak.  These aspects take a backseat to the comedy.  The movie has some decent action scenes that harken back to the 2000 movie, but the silly humor and weak villains really harm the movie.  It isn’t unwatchable, but unnecessary.  Tim Story’s movie just doesn’t hold water to Singleton’s movie.   

Grade C