Samuel L Jackson, very cool in a wardrobe designed by Armani, has the necessary presence to carry off this slick homage to the icon of 1970s blaxploitation from director John Singleton. This Shaft is the nephew of the original (Richard Roundtree, who returns to the screen here with a beauty on each arm), and he's one mad, mean mother, especially when wealthy creep Christian Bale gets away with a brutal, racially motivated murder. Vanessa Williams is pure window-dressing as Shaft's partner, but Jeffrey Wright is brilliant as his drugs lord adversary, while Isaac Hayes's Oscar-winning theme song once again gets the pulse pumping for some maliciously funny twists and heavy violence, as Shaft outwits informers, sadists and bent cops to get to his killer with ruthless style. Still the man!

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.