Runtime: 104 minutes
Directed by: Gordon Parks
Starring: Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, Wally Taylor, Joseph Mascolo, Rosalind Miles
From: MGM
I do understand why there are some blaxploitation fans (or 70's genre fans in general) who do not love the original Shaft or its sequels. There's plenty of blaxploitation which is wilder-look at something like Truck Turner or Black Belt Jones-and more over the top... whether it comes to the plot, the situations, the clothing, the music, etc. Personally, the OG Shaft is very good to me due to its simple yet interesting story, colorful characters, the gritty vibe from its low budget, the quality score from Isaac Hayes-it's not just the theme song although that is still legendary half a century later-and a magnetic lead performance from Richard Roundtree. Recently, I purchased the Warner Archive Release of all three Shaft pictures from the 70's; when streaming the two sequels in HD is not possible, this seemed like the correct choice.
The overall product is naturally not as strong as the first; yet, to me it was still good. With the luxury of a bigger budget, all of this is shown on screen as Shaft investigates the death of a friend; turns out, that buddy's business partner double-crossed him in the name of greed & shady deals w/ underworld types. Bumpy Jonas (an underworld type that was a key figure in the first movie) also returns. Even if the movie is “leisurely paced” at times I was never bored with this tale; after all, at times there are interesting characters present-the key example of that was another mob boss, an Italian named Mascola who was chill-except when he got mad and did the typical mob boss things-and loved playing the clarinet.
The bigger budget did help create more expansive action scenes; this includes a car chase which involved a helicopter and that changed into a speedboat being chased by said helicopter. While Hayes did not do the score this time around, it was fine to my ears which happens to enjoy that particular genre anyhow. Of course, the biggest asset to making this sequel work for me was Roundtree's charisma and Shaft still being a bad mother... OK I'll shut my mouth. His bedding of multiple women and being a black private dick (as in, private eye) has not changed since the OG motion picture.
The Shaft starring Samuel L. Jackson was meh overall, although it did not look so bad since I saw the '19 Shaft which is a terrible “comedy” that craps on millennials in a vulgar manner and not even Roundtree returning as John Shaft, Sr. could help save it. At least those don't diminish how entertaining the original pictures are.
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