Shaft's Big Score!
June. 08,1972 RJohn Shaft is back as the lady-loved black detective cop on the search for the murderer of a client.
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Reviews
That was an excellent one.
Absolutely the worst movie.
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.
Richard Roundtree reprises his role as John Shaft, in this very respectable sequel to one of the greatest urban crime thrillers ever. The story is actually nothing new or spectacular; it's a standard 'cops go up against the mafia' story. But the script isn't really the draw here. It's the 70's; the clothes, the cars, the music, the incomparable "coolness" that made the first film so great. This one succeeds largely because they didn't stray from the formula that made the original a success. We have the same director, the same writers, and the same actors reprising their memorable roles. Director Gordon Parks makes full use of the super-wide lens; 1970's New York City looks absolutely magnificent in the 2:35 aspect ratio, as do the action packed, and blood drenched shoot-outs, and especially in the big finale. Featuring a classic shootout in a cemetery, followed by a manic car chase on the Cross Bronx Expressway, complete with pursuit by helicopter!. There's nothing more awesome than a 70's car chase sequence , and the action here is handled superbly. In fact this is one polished, sleek production, and it's pretty obvious that it had a larger budget than the first one. Sometimes that actually hurts a sequel, when it's more flashy than it's predecessor, but this one doesn't suffer that fate. Obviously a lot of the budget went towards the action effects. Those bloody gun shot wounds were among the most realistic I have ever seen. "Shaft's Big Score" is a must-see for fans of the original, and of 70's crime films in general. John Shaft is a truly iconic movie character, and it's a pleasure to see him on screen again, kicking bad guy ass and cleaning up the streets of New York. After seeing this one I'm really looking forward to "Shaft In Africa."
Just recently, I've been yearning for some quality blaxploitation, but have lucked out with my last couple of choices: TNT Jackson was a completely dreadful Coffy wannabe and The Black Cobra, starring Fred Williamson, wasn't even a proper blaxploitation (that'll teach me not to do my homework first). This time around, I was more careful with my selection: Shaft is the cool cat who never disappoints (just ask the long line of ladies he leaves in his wake!).In this, his second adventure, the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks (once again played by Richard Roundtree) becomes involved in a gang war after an old friend is blown to pieces by a bomb. As John Shaft sets about settling the score with the killers, he gets sexy with a few hot mamas, proves tasty with his fists, blows away some bad guys (resulting in some nice 'n' bloody gunshot wounds), uncovers a hidden stash of cash, drives a speedboat at high speed and shoots a helicopter out of the sky. It's not exactly groundbreaking stuff, but it is hugely entertaining, with great characters and winning performances all round, some impressively mounted action sequences (the bigger budget really shows), several pretty ladies jiggling their bits around, and that all important funky score.
Richard Roundtree carried on his character of John Shaft for a sequel to the original Shaft with Shaft's big score. This time he has no client, he's working on his own to solve the bombing murder of a friend, find $250,000.00 from the same friend that went missing at the same time and protect the sister of the deceased who may or may not have the money.Kathie Imrie is the sister and guarding her body is the best part of the deal as it is a lovely body. But his real problem is the partner of the dead friend Wally Taylor. Taylor and the deceased had many interests, a funeral parlor and an insurance agency. But they also had the numbers racket in Harlem and Taylor has a bad gambling habit.As in the first Shaft film, Italian gangsters led by Joseph Mascolo and Joe Santos are looking to move in on the numbers. That is if Harlem racketeer Moses Gunn from the first Shaft movie doesn't move it first. And the ever present police are also interfering and they are represented by Julius Harris.For some reason they dropped the Oscar winning theme from the first Shaft movie, though Isaac Hayes did write more music. Why drop a trademark? I'll bet a lot of fans were disappointed.Without even the Oscar winning song, Shaft's Big Score shapes up as another routine action/adventure film, fans of Roundtree will like it.
The enforced jollity of that exclamation mark should be a warning. 'Shaft's Big Score!', if I may say so under IMDb guidelines, must be the best 'bad' movie ever made. It is bad: supposedly an action film, direction, plot and action fell asleep as often as I did. But there is an intelligence and skill here unthinkable in, say, 'Police Academy IV'. If Shaft is Bond, than 'Shaft's Big Score' is an anti-Bond film, subjecting the hero to structuralist scrutiny, exposing his weaknesses and limitations; in one sex scene, site of his virile power, he dissolves into abstraction, his body disappearing from the place where it is most needed. A kind of ghost story, the funeral sequence is amazing, as a coffin is lowered down, but the camera rises and points at Shaft. This supernatural frisson is betrayed by the drive towards a risible helicopter climax.