''Shaft'' is a 2019 American

action comedy film The action comedy is a film genre that applies to action films where humor plays a much more central role. While early films feature stuntwork and humor, academic Cynthia King wrote that the genre only came into its own as a mainstay of the Americ ...

directed by

Tim Story Timothy Kevin Story is an American film director. He is best known for '' Barbershop'' (2002), ''Fantastic Four'' (2005), and the ''Ride Along'' franchise. He has been nominated for two NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Directing in a Feature ...

and written by Kenya Barris and Alex Barnow. The film stars Samuel L. Jackson, Jessie T. Usher,

Regina Hall Regina Lee Hall (born December 12, 1970) is an American actress. She rose to prominence for her role as Brenda Meeks in the comedy horror ''Scary Movie'' film series (2000–2006). Hall received critical acclaim for her role in the film '' Sup ...

, and

Richard Roundtree Richard Arnold Roundtree (July 9, 1942 – October 24, 2023) was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of private detective John Shaft in the 1971 film '' Shaft'' and four of its sequels, '' Shaft's Big Score!'' (1972), '' Shaft ...

. It is the fifth film in the ''Shaft'' series, a sequel to the 2000 film with the same title and was also Roundtree's final portrayal of the original

eponymous An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

character John Shaft Sr. before his death in 2023. The film was released theatrically in the United States on June 14, 2019, by

Warner Bros. Pictures Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film studio and distribution arm of the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group division of Warner Bros., both of which are owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex ...

, and digitally in global markets on June 28, 2019, by

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

. It received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics and underperformed at the box office.

Plot

In 1989,

NYPD The City of New York Police Department, also referred to as New York City Police Department (NYPD), is the primary law enforcement agency within New York City. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is the largest, and one of the oldest, munic ...

Detective John Shaft, his wife Maya, and their infant son JJ Shaft survive an assassination attempt by drug lord Pierro "Gordito" Carrera. Concerned for their safety, Maya divorces Shaft, moves upstate, and raises JJ on her own. Twenty-five years later, Shaft has become a

private investigator A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI; also known as a private detective, an inquiry agent or informally a wikt:private eye, private eye) is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. ...

and JJ is a rookie

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

analyst. JJ's childhood friend and ex-

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

soldier Karim appears to die of a heroin overdose, but doctor and love interest Sasha concludes he was murdered. JJ turns to his father for aid. Shaft agrees to help, believing JJ's case may lead him to Gordito. The Shafts survey "Brothers Watching Brothers", the drug rehab clinic Karim founded with fellow ex-soldiers. They learn that Karim stopped going to rehab in favor of attending services at a mosque. JJ and Shaft investigate Bennie Rodriguez, who donated $500,000 to the mosque. Meanwhile, Maya and John also reunite after not seeing each other since their divorce. Despite resumed tensions between the two, it is also revealed that Maya and John, after the divorce, had agreed that the latter would keep an eye on their son when he moved to New York. The reminder of that promise forces John to remember his responsibility as JJ's father. JJ and Sasha track Bennie to an abandoned warehouse and uncover the operation: "Brothers Watching Brothers" smuggles drugs from overseas, Gordito sells them, and Bennie launders the money. The ring donated to Karim's mosque to buy his silence, then later killed him when he intimidated to blow the whistle. JJ is discovered by the smugglers; Sasha is kidnapped while JJ is rescued by Shaft. Shaft introduces JJ to his grandfather, John Shaft Sr (revealed to be Shaft's father and was pretending to be an uncle), who provides them with plenty of weapons. The trio assault Gordito's penthouse and kill the smugglers, avenging Karim's death. JJ rescues Sasha before being confronted at gunpoint by Gordito. Gordito attempts to shoot JJ but Shaft takes the bullet and shoots Gordito, who falls through a window to his death. In the aftermath, Shaft recovers in the hospital and Bennie is arrested. JJ and Sasha kiss and begin a relationship. JJ joins his father and grandfather in their PI business. The three generations of Shafts strut on the road together.

Cast

* Samuel L. Jackson as John Shaft II, a

and ex-

Detective, father of JJ Shaft and son of John Shaft Sr * Jessie T. Usher as John "J.J." Shaft, III, an

computer analyst, estranged son of John Shaft and grandson of John Shaft Sr, whom he meets for the first time since he was a baby. ** Jordan Preston Carter as young JJ *

as Maya Babanikos, JJ's mother and John Shaft's ex-wife *

Alexandra Shipp Alexandra Shipp (born July 16, 1991) is an American actress and singer who rose to prominence for portraying singer Aaliyah in the Lifetime television film '' Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B'' (2014) and Kimberly Woodruff in the film ''Straight Ou ...

as Sasha Arias, medical doctor, JJ's female best friend and love interest. ** Nyah Marie Johnson as young Sasha *

Matt Lauria Matthew Lauria (born August 15, 1982) is an American actor and musician. He made his television debut on the NBC sitcom ''30 Rock'' in 2007. He is best known for his roles as Luke Cafferty on the NBC/DirecTV drama '' Friday Night Lights'', Ryan ...

as Major Gary Cutworth, Karim's partner in the rehab centre * Titus Welliver as

Special Agent In the United States, a special agent is an official title used to refer to certain investigators or detectives of federal, military, tribal, or state agencies who primarily serve in criminal investigatory positions. Additionally, some special ...

Vietti, JJ's FBI boss * Cliff "Method Man" Smith as Freddy P., acquaintance of John Shaft *

as John Shaft Sr., legendary private investigator, father of John Shaft and grandfather of JJ Shaft Isaach de Bankolé portrays Pierro "Gordito" Carrera, a drug lord.

Avan Jogia Avan Tudor Jogia (; born February 9, 1992) is a Canadian actor, singer, author and director. He first received recognition for portraying Danny Araujo in the television film '' A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story'' (2006). After moving to the ...

portrays Karim Hassan, JJ's male best friend, a recovering addict helping fellow returning soldiers. Joey Mekyten portrays a young Karim.

Lauren Vélez Luna Lauren Vélez (born November 2, 1964) is an American actress. Her most notable television roles are as María LaGuerta on Showtime (TV network), Showtime's ''Dexter (TV series), Dexter'', Detective Nina Moreno on Fox Broadcasting Company, F ...

portrays Bennie Rodriguez, Gordito's money launderer. In addition, Cutworth's criminal partners at the rehab center are played by Robbie Jones as Sergeant Keith Williams, and Aaron Dominguez as Staff Sergeant Eddie Dominguez (Bennie's cousin), with Leland Jones appearing as Maya's date Ron, while Baby and Sugar, JJ's new friends at the club, are played by Chivonne Michelle and Tashiana Washington, respectively. Adrienne C. Moore as Ms. Pepper the cab driver.

Production

On February 18, 2015, it was announced that

New Line Cinema New Line Productions, Inc., Trade name, doing business as New Line Cinema, is an American film production, film and television production company that is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, a division of the Major film studios, ...

had acquired the rights to the ''Shaft'' franchise, featuring detective character

John Shaft John Shaft is a fictional private investigator created by author/screenwriter Ernest Tidyman for the 1970 novel of the same name. He was portrayed by Richard Roundtree in the original 1971 film and in its four sequels—'' Shaft's Big Score!'' ...

, and would develop a new film within the series, along with producer John Davis of

Davis Entertainment Davis Entertainment (also known as Davis Entertainment Company) is an American independent film and television production company, founded by John Davis in 1984. Davis's three divisions–feature film, independent film, and television–develo ...

. On July 28, 2015, it was reported that Kenya Barris and Alex Barnow would write the script for the new film, which would also be produced by Ira Napoliello, and on January 20, 2017, the studio hired

to direct. On August 18, 2017, Jessie T. Usher was cast to play the film's new lead, the son of Samuel L. Jackson's John Shaft II from the 2000 film, while

and Jackson were set to reprise their previous franchise roles. In October 2017, Netflix signed a deal with New Line Cinema to cover more than half of the film's $30 million budget in exchange for the rights, which allowed Netflix to release the film on its platform outside of the United States two weeks after the theatrical release in the U.S. Filming began in February 2018, and wrapped up production in the early part of the year. The cast went back to re-shoot a few scenes in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

in August 2018.

Release

''Shaft'' was theatrically released in the United States on June 14, 2019, by Warner Bros. Netflix released it internationally on June 28, 2019.

Reception

Box office

''Shaft'' was released alongside '' Men in Black: International'', as well as the wider expansion of '' Late Night'' in the United States and Canada, and was initially projected to gross $17–20 million from 2,950 theaters in its opening weekend. However, after the film only brought in $2.7 million on its first official release day, which included $600,000 from Thursday night previews, projections were lowered to $7 million. The film went on to gross $21.3 million, grossing $8.3 million in its debut week and another $3.6 million in its second weekend.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads: "Decades removed from the original, this multi-generational ''Shaft'' struggles to keep its characters interesting -- or anything other than uncomfortably outdated." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 40 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews." Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

gave the film a grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while those at

PostTrak PostTrak is a U.S.-based service that surveys film audiences for film studios. History The service conducts surveys in the top 20 markets in the U.S. and Canada with the use of polling cards and electronic kiosks. A PostTrak report for a fil ...

gave it an average 4 out of 5 stars and a 51% "definite recommend." Writing for ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...

'', Ignatiy Vishnevetsky gave the film a C, writing, "With its groaner jokes and TV-pilot production values, the new film makes the last attempt at updating the character to contemporary action-hero tastes (in 2000's ''Shaft'', directed by

John Singleton John Daniel Singleton (January 6, 1968 April 28, 2019) was an American director, screenwriter, and producer. He made his feature film debut writing and directing '' Boyz n the Hood'' (1991), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for ...

) look downright old-school. And its identity crises go a lot deeper than the title it confusingly shares with two earlier films."

Notes

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 2019 action comedy films 2019 crime action films 2019 crime thriller films 2019 action thriller films American action comedy films American crime action films American crime thriller films American action thriller films American buddy cop films Davis Entertainment films Films about father–son relationships Films directed by Tim Story Films produced by John Davis Films set in 1989 Films set in 2014 Films shot in Atlanta Films with screenplays by Kenya Barris Films scored by Christopher Lennertz New Line Cinema films English-language action comedy films Netflix original films American sequel films Shaft (franchise) Warner Bros. films 2019 films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films African-American films Films about heroin Films set in Queens, New York English-language crime action films English-language crime thriller films