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 I laughed so hard that I thought the vein in my forehead would pop. Truly incredible film, and 'Chef', Isaac Hayes, sure did sound young while cutting the tracks in this one. Truly entertaining, pick it up.
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And it aint bad in the good way! (N.B. This isn't a knock on the movie, it is classic 70's afro stuff). 1st of all, let's look at the special features. Mmmkay, here we have a trailer for each of the three 70's SHAFT movies. This is a nice touch, yet I feel something missing - mainly a clear picture and audible sound. Next up is the "Soul In Cinema" documentary, which looks and sounds like something that The Reject Shop rejected. And finally, we come to the so-called "Awards" section, which basically tells you what everyone already knows: that the theme won best song. So after the 30 seconds of thrills and spills that the extra features provided us with, we decide to watch the film itself. The picture, well, that's why I gave this a 2 star rating, because it at least if half-decent, and you have the option of wide or fullscreen. But please folks, don't get your hopes up, because now we shuffle along to the sound quality. Have you ever put ice in the blender, and nothing else, then turned it onto Auto-Cleaning mode? Well this is the closest resemblance to the noise coming out of 4 of your 5 speakers that I can think of. The back of the case will lead you to believe that this is encoded with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. And it is - but unfortunately only on the menu music (did I mention the menu doesn't move?). And the most disappointing thing here is that I live in Australia (That is disappointing in itself), and had to import this trash. Please, spare yourself the agony of trying to decipher this mess and wait for another version, or buy the Neanderthal, outdated VHS tape.
John Shaft's first screen adventure finds him hired by Harlem gang boss Bumpy to track down his daughter, who has been kidnapped. Setting aside the stigma many people attach to 1970s "blaxploitation" films, and my constant raving about how Shaft is da man, there's quite a lot to recommend in this film. Among the film's most famous attributes is its excellent score, particularly the "Theme from Shaft," by the legendary Isaac Hayes. To fully experience the power of his music for the film, however, one needs to seek out the "Shaft" soundtrack album. The recordings differ slightly from what is heard is the film, and the sound is much richer. Truly, this is one of the all-time greatest film scores. Leading the pack of talented actors is the man himself, Richard Roundtree, whose charismatic performance would carry the film even if it did not excel on all other fronts. As it is, Roundtree positively shines. I could go on to write pages about this film. Suffice to say it is an expert blend of humor, action, romance(of a sort), and suspense that is worth anyone's time. As for the picture and sound quality on the DVD, both are less than outstanding, but better than you might expect from a film nearly thirty years old. The extra features are nothing to get excited about, with most of them being pretty standard.
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| I laughed so hard that I thought the vein in my forehead would pop. Truly incredible film, and 'Chef', Isaac Hayes, sure did sound young while cutting the tracks in this one. Truly entertaining, pick it up.
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