Cool, cooler, Samuel L. Jackson: As a private investigator John Shaft, the Hollywood star cuts a fine figure in the new edition of the classic Blaxploitation. Our today’s TV tip
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The return a legend usually goes hand in hand with its final demise. John Shaft, the toughest and coolest Blaxploitation hero of the 70s, is back, but this time he looks like Samuel L. Jackson. That is not the only thing that has changed. Jackson’s shaft is the ex-hero’s nephew and a cop. The aggressive masculinity of the original shaft gave way to modern black pride paired with exuberant sense of justice and Versace leather jackets.
Samuel L. Jackson: Tamed, but not good
The simple solutions are a thing of the past: Shaft has to untangle a complicated story about a racist murderer, a Hispano gangster and an unwilling murder witness, and he does it smoothly and confidently. Samuel L. Jackson stays on the leash for a long time, tacting and talking before the guns speak loudly and finally. The simple solutions are the best. This shaft is a talented craftsman, a trickster, in whose world there is little space for drugs, alcohol or sex. “Who’s the black private dick that’s a sex machine to all the chicks …?” Well, those days are over. And that’s not that bad.
“Shaft – Any further questions?” Opens at 22:05 this evening Cable one.
July 21, 2020 // Volker Sievert
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