Shaft

Talk about a dud that guts its own source material. In the 2000 Shaft reboot, Samuel L. Jackson played Richard Roundtree’s (the original 1971 Shaft’s) nephew, but in this new Shaft, suddenly Samuel L. Jackson is now Richard Roundtree’s son. That can be forgiven, but the boilerplate, clichéd script (that took three writers to write) (that’s never a good sign) cannot. The story follows Shaft and his son, JJ, John Shaft, Jr. (played by Jessie T. Usher) as they investigate the death of a friend. The performances are so dialed-in. Samuel L. Jackson, who’s made a career out of playing the same character over and over (God bless him), cashes in once again (what a genius!). Jessie T. Usher is most known for being in that humdrum Independence Day sequel, but now he might be known for his unalluring performance in this new waste-of-time snooze-fest. If anyone bothers to watch it, that is.

[R]