Shaft

Isaac Hayes’ sensuous, hot-buttered theme song festively launches this spasmodic sequel to the 1971 blaxploitation milestone. In a swirl of street attitude, Armani leather and relentless political incorrectness, Samuel L. Jackson plunges his bad self deep into the role of tough cop-vigilante John Shaft. As the namesake nephew of the original private dick (reprised briefly by Richard Roundtree), Shaft clashes with a rich racist killer (Christian Bale) and a Dominican drug lord (Jeffery Wright). It’s Jackson’s intensity, Bale’s chill and Wright’s operatic swagger that punches the film over the script’s many potholes. Directed by John Singleton (Rosewood, Boyz N the Hood).