Odd, this remake of 1971's Shaft. The character of John Shaft is an inextricable product of the seventies, which is perhaps why this remake fails to make much of an impression. What impression it does make is that of Samuel L. Jackson, who doesn't seem so much like John Shaft as what John Shaft should have been in the first place. Jackson makes a fantastic no-nonsense tough guy. Alas, he's lost in a banal, formulaic crime drama with no way out.