Movie

Shaft

2000 · 99 min

A slick, cool-headed crime thriller with sharp attitude, brisk action, and a charismatic lead who keeps the tension light and entertaining.

Tagline: Still the man, any questions?
Overview: New York police detective John Shaft arrests Walter Wade Jr. for a racially motivated slaying. But the only eyewitness disappears, and Wade jumps bail for Switzerland. Two years later Wade returns to face trial, confident his money and influence will get him acquitted -- especially since he's paid a drug kingpin to kill the witness.

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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone: tensestrength 2 of 3
satiricalstrength 2 of 3
cynicalstrength 2 of 3
darkstrength 1 of 3
Pacing: brisk, 3 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention: easy-watch, 2 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes: revenge
justice
corruption
race
crime
Places: big city
Era: contemporary
Audience: adult
Form: serialised
Content intensity: Gore mild
Language strong
Violence strong
Sex mild

All scales, 0 to 10

Scales, 0 to 10
Scale	Value	0 to 10
Action	7
Horror	1
Humour	5
Realism	7
Romance	2
Tension	6
Darkness	6
Complexity	4
Emotional weight	5

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Where to watch in the UK

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Streaming data from JustWatch.All options on TMDB

Details

Genres: action, adventure, crime, thriller
Directed by: John Singleton
Written by: John Singleton, Shane Salerno, Richard Price
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Vanessa Williams, Jeffrey Wright, Christian Bale, Busta Rhymes, Dan Hedaya, Toni Collette, Richard Roundtree
Music: David Arnold
Cinematography: Donald E. Thorin
Runtime: 99 min
Country: United States of America, Germany
Languages: English, Spanish, German

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Shaft

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