McCoy on Movies: Shaft

THE BACK STORY: John Shaft (Samuel L. Jackson) is Harlem’s protector, a detective with a break bones first if necessary, ask questions later style that matches his apparel and his automobile. That’s partially the reason his ex Mya (Regina Hall) left him, taking his young son John Shaft, Jr. in the process (well that and dealing with one shootout too many for her liking). 


Now, 20 years later, John Shaft Jr. – JJ (Jessie T. Usher) for short – is making his own way in the world as a data analyst at the FBI. A graduate of MIT, JJ is good with his hands, even if his sense of style and personality are not traditional in terms of the male Shaft family name. Then JJ’s best friend Karim (Avan Jogia) get killed.


Looking for answers with his other best friend Sasha (Alexandra Shipp), JJ ultimately decides to turn to help from the one person least likely to give it to him: his dad. As you might expect, a two decade gap in his child’s life leads to some serious daddy issues .. But once father and son learn the ins and outs of the case, it might be time for a family reunion if they are going to survive and get to the truth about what happened to Karim.

THE REVIEW: Sometimes, you can get a movie that’s a crowd pleaser because the characters are engaging enough to make up for the film’s flaws that also packs enough humor in it to make you overlook the things that don’t work. Co-written by Kenya Barris of black-ish and grown-ish fame, 2019’s Shaft (not to be confused with 2000’s installment also starring Samuel L. Jackson) is more of a comedy than any previous installments have ever been, which has both positive and negative side effects on the film as a whole.As one might expect, the familiar father/son crime-fighting trope is at times as tired as you’d expect; then again, Jackson and Usher play to their strengths well enough that the whole “old playa tries to teach millennial while millennial tries to make old playa learn the error of most of his social ways” routine feel fresher than it should. Recurring jokes about the younger Shaft’s manhood and sexuality may not likely play well in mainstream America, but urban audiences raised on generations of comedians like 1980s Eddie Murphy and late greats like Robin Harris (who gets some nice screen time in the movie) and Bernie Mac will likely enjoy it in spades. Likewise, the where there are plenty of times the film’s machismo levels spin out of control, they are eventually grounded back to earth enough to keep things moving forward.

Then again, there isn’t too much to worry about moving forward as the plot is pretty much standard action movie fare (someone dies, the simplest answer is too simple and there’s a bigger conspiracy afoot). This is why Jackson’s full-on Sam Jax mode performance coupled with Usher’s fish out of water routine are so critical to the film’s overall entertainment level. Throw in a soundtrack that may make longstanding fans of African-American cinema wish for the days of the 1990s when every hit urban film came with a classic album to boot and Shaft makes up for its shortcomings well-enough to give the people what they want: Samuel Jackson cursing and taking names like no one else can, Hall giving it back to him and enough laughs to go around. It’s far from perfect, but it will please the majority of modern audiences here for a good time (even if it’s not really a great movie as much as it is an okay one).

As the theme song said so many moons ago, you’ll probably be better off just shutting your mouth and accepting it for what it is instead of thinking about what it could have been or should be.

OVERALL RATING (OUT OF FOUR POSSIBLE BUCKETS OF POPCORN):