Shaft seeks to protect a murder witness who goes undercover.
Shaft is back.
From the opening credits of cutting-edge images and the thumping beat of Isaac Hayes' theme, it's apparent that director John Singleton is aiming his vision of Shaft at the MTV generation and the summer box office crowd. Thirty years later, Shaft has emerged from the blaxploitation genre, to a commercial crossover vehicle hoping to ring up those summer box-office dollars. And even though Richard Roundtree, reprises his role as the original Shaft, the white power structure which he destined are no longer the villains. Shaft's modern villains are molded straight from the Die Hard and Lethal Weapon comic-book like cast. Jackson plays Roundtrees' nephew, New York City Det.