One bad mutha

Despite a fairly intriguing first hour that captures the original film's leisurely pace and street-smart mood, what finally conks Shaft's afro is a third act that lacks a compelling, forward-moving plot. There is no sense of urgency à la a ticking time bomb or impending terrorist act. Despite an effective action sequence with Peoples' minions breaking into an apartment to silence a witness whom Shaft is guarding -- essentially the exact reverse of Roundtree's finale in the original, where he orchestrates a hotel assault to rescue a hostage -- the movie devolves into a car chase/shoot-'em-up where the outcome is rarely in question.

Yet this climax doesn't even include the racist Wade, the film's real villain. It's inexplicable why Singleton spends so much time making the audience fear and despise Wade -- a true American psycho -- when the eventual battle is between Shaft and Peoples, a more sympathetic opponent. Wade's fate is left to a tacked-on courtroom showdown that is abrupt and unsatisfying.

Unlike, say, Casablanca or Psycho, the first Shaft was a movie ripe for remaking. Singleton and Jackson have brought some credibility to their update, especially in the film's early scenes where conflicts are resolved through words, not homicides. It's somewhat of a positive sign for Singleton, who has barely tread water since his stunning 1991 debut, Boyz N the Hood (he is still the youngest person ever to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Director). His recent Higher Learning and Rosewood were engaging ideas that were disappointingly executed, both reeking of studio meddling or a bid by the filmmaker to turn an art film into a commercial product.

Singleton's Shaft sticks to its conceptual focus -- a '90s updating of a '70s low-key classic -- but it also gets mired in an attempt to pander to its intended audience by increasing the body count and exploiting its racial undertones. When Detective Shaft explains after a courtroom setback, "Justice gets tangled up in red tape, then bought off by the green," he might as well be talking about this remake. Can you dig it?