Shaft

Though it has the recycled feel of a remake, at least the next-generation update of Shaft does us the service of rethinking its hero. As NYPD detective John Shaft, nephew of the original Richard Roundtree character, Jackson has smooth moves and bad attitude all his own. But while Christian Bale’s murderous rich-boy racist and Jeffrey Wright’s volatile drug lord make interesting dual villains, the schizoid script-by-committee keeps their plotlines tangled. Director John Singleton then predictably resolves the mess by piling up the bullet-riddled body count. Sadly, nothing about this movie is different enough. C+