In 'Shaft,' The Sex Machine Grinds Its Gears

To clear up any potential confusion, let's specify right here that the new action comedy Shaft is a sequel to, not a remake of, John Singleton's 2000 film Shaft. Which was a sequel to, not a remake of, Gordon Parks' 1971 "blaxploitation" landmark Shaft, adapted from Ernest Tidyman's novel but made immortal by Isaac Hayes' Oscar-winning title song.

Strangely, the churning of the decades has made the 19-year-old film a queasier revisit than the 48-year-old one: In Y2K, Samuel L. Jackson (as 2000 had a stronger familial resemblance to 1971's than it did to 1971's (Both films had their cop heroes literally chuck their badges in frustration with The System's failure to punish the guilty.) But it was a well-made, briskly paced studio action picture livened by a pair of memorably odd villains played by Christian Bale and Jeffrey Wright.