Word: shafting
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...Texas-style BBQ party paid for by mining, gas and nuclear companies featuring tubs of Shiner Bock beer until a congressional aide tossed us out." All of Philadelphia was a party--and it was difficult not to stumble over famous feet. Says Frank: "Richard Roundtree--the original Shaft--sat on the couch watching John McCain at the podium. I spoke to Trent Lott, Jerry Falwell and Bob Livingston within an hour. George Stephanopoulos backed into me and apologized." One of the rare times he'll ever do that...
...Shaft": I think Samuel L. Jackson is a great actor. He looks fabulous. He looks even more fabulous in Armani. But I don't need to pay $10 to see him, thus clad, reciting singsong lyrics in a pallid imitation of the groundbreaking movie of the same name...
...Shaft, played by Samuel L. Jackson, is different from the old one, portrayed in the '70s by Richard Roundtree, in two significant ways. He is no longer a private eye--if you can believe it, he's now a New York City cop--and though plenty of foxy chicks sashay across his eyeline, his interest is mainly in chatting them up, not in bedding them down...
...least had an attitude, and that's what director John Singleton's Shaft lacks. It begins by focusing on an upper-class racist murderer (Christian Bale) whose motives we don't quite believe. So the movie quickly shifts its attention to a sly, brutal, self-regarding Latino drug dealer (Jeffrey Wright). You can understand only about one in three words he speaks, but you catch his very scary drift...
Wright's a wonder, playing a role that was--deservedly--built up during production. But that leaves a lot of other actors--among them Vanessa Williams, Toni Collette and Roundtree himself (as Shaft's beamish uncle)--shortchanged. It also leaves Jackson to play yet another cop rebelliously disgusted with the system and Singleton with yet another urban action piece, well enough made but not essentially different from a hundred other movies just like...