Watching the original now, you're struck by how much roaming Shaft does. Shaft 2000, by contrast, opens with a slick but murky montage that is very James Bond in its fetishization of clothing, guns, and women. He's a cop, for one thing, not a private eye. And despite Jackson's way with a wisecrack, he's a far less commanding presence than his earlier counterpart. Take away the complicated facial hair and the sleek Giorgio Armani clothes, and this John Shaft is another hemmed-in black man in a city teeming with hostility.
Any sexual magnetism is left curiously off-screen.
The new Shaft 's shrewdly conceived plot turns on whether a black family can find justice after a hate crime. His powerful father bails him out, and he hightails it to Switzerland. Two years later, Shaft is waiting when Wade tries to sneak back into the country. Powerful connections allow Wade to make bail again. An enraged Shaft quits the police force, whipping his badge over the judge's head like a weapon in a kung-fu movie.