Shaft (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Main Menu Audio & Animation Theatrical Trailer Featurette-Cast & Crew Interviews Featurette-Making Of-Shaft: Still The Man Music Video-Theme From Shaft-Isaac Hayes Music Video-Bad Man-R. Kelly
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	95:14
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (48:50)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	John Singleton
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Samuel L. Jackson Toni Collette Christian Bale Vanessa Williams Richard Roundtree Dan Hedaya
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$39.95	Music	David Arnold Isaac Hayes

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	Greek English French Hebrew Croatian Portuguese	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    This is not, strictly, a remake. The storyline is quite different, but the feel is similar. Shaft is one cool dangerous man. He takes s*** from no one, on either side of the law. And he accomplishes his ends his way, whether it is completely legal, or not. But he has his own morals, and he remains true to them throughout.

    But there some serious differences. In the original, Shaft is lady-killer, sleeping with at least three different women in the course of the movie. In this movie, one lady is hinted at, but that's all. In the original, Shaft doesn't do a lot of shooting. In this one, he gets through a considerable quantity of ammunition (and he's a remarkably good shot - far better than his opposition). And he's angrier and more brutal - the original Shaft was cooler, more laid-back. The other really noticeable difference is the coarse language - one word, and one phrase, get extensive use, as if the script writers lacked imagination.

    You probably saw the trailer, and remember the badge-throwing moment - it is cute, but it must have cost a mint, because they as much use out of it that they can. It is in the movie, in the trailer, and in all of the extras bar one.

    I did like the homages to the original. Shaft wears a variety of black leather jackets, all very stylish (some of them Armani!). The original theme song, with the original artist (Isaac Hayes) is heard, under both the opening and closing credits. And the original Shaft (Richard Roundtree) appears - he is John Shaft, too, this Shaft's uncle. Perhaps the coolest homage is the least visible: the director of the original movie appears in a cameo (the "making of" points him out). 

    In case you were wondering, nope, I'm not going to summarise the plot. Oh, there is a plot, and it's coherent. It is not as good as the original, but it'll do. My suggestion is that you get the original movie first. If you enjoyed the original, you will probably enjoy this one, too.

Video

    This movie is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced. That is the theatrical aspect ratio.

    The image is beautifully clear, with excellent shadow detail and no low level noise.

    Colour is vivid, deep, and well-saturated, with no hint of bleed or oversaturation.

    There are no film artefacts. There are no MPEG artefacts, save for a tiny touch of shimmer in one background. There are hints of aliasing, but it is rare. There is a little bit of moire on a flyscreen door, but I mention it mainly to point out that there's so little to remark upon.

    The subtitles in English are a little larger than usual, which makes them even easier to read. They are clear and well-timed, but they do alter the words a little in a few places to keep them short.

    The disc is single-sided and dual-layered, formatted as RSDL. The layer change is at 48:50; it is quite noticeable, even though it is placed at the end of a scene as it is a little jarring.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are two soundtracks, in English and French. Both are Dolby Digital 5.1 at 448 kbps.

    Dialogue is generally clear, although the Dominican accent affected by Jeffrey Wright is difficult to make out. There's a moment of slightly sloppy ADR at 70:50, but I place that fault in the source material. The audio sync is otherwise spot on.

    The score is inspired by Isaac Hayes' Oscar-winning score for the original movie. Although Isaac Hayes performs the theme, the remainder of the score is credited to David Arnold. It sounds like an updated version of the original, with some nice extra parts, and I'm sure that's exactly what was intended, so I accord it a success.

    There is no noticeable directional sound, but the surrounds are used more to deepen the soundstage - they are in operation most of the time, supporting the fronts. The subwoofer extends the low octave of the soundtrack. This is achieved seamlessly, and without drawing attention to the sub, or the surrounds. Nice subtle work.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The main menu is backed by music from the score. There's a nice animation leading into it, and animation running through it. This is one of the better menus I've seen recently. It looks nice without detracting from the simple functionality of the menu itself.

Theatrical Trailer (2:11)

    Not 16x9 enhanced. It's a touch grainy, but quite reasonable.

Cast/Crew Interviews (13:20)

    This is a single segment, editing together interviews with several members of the cast, plus the director. It's worth seeing this to note Toni Collette's obvious Australian accent, Christian Bale's accent, and Jeffrey Wright's distinctly educated voice - each one sounds quite different in the movie.

Making Of: Shaft: Still the Man (16:19)

    This is a classic "making of", with the usual sorts of comments in it. There's some overlap between this and the interviews - I'd guess they had a bit too much material for the "making of" (over 30 minutes and they have to pay the actors to participate), so they split some of it off to making the interviews.

Music Video: Theme from Shaft (2:58)

    Isaac Hayes performing the theme - not a bad music video, decorated with lots of young women.

Music Video: Bad Man (4:57)

    Performed by R Kelly, I suspect this was their back-up theme song, in case they couldn't get the rights to the original. It plays in the background in the movie when they're hiding out in Busta's apartment, and plays behind the closing credits after the audience has left the cinema. 

    There are few differences between the Region 4 and Region 1 discs. The Region 4 disc has subtitles in 6 languages; the Region 1 has only 1. The Region 4 disc is in PAL; the Region 1 is NTSC. That's the sum total of the differences. Oh, and the Region1 is in an opaque case, while the Region 4 is transparent. Other than that, the discs are pretty much identical, even to the artwork.

    Direct comparison of the two discs shows very similar, high quality, transfers. The choice is a toss-up, but I lean towards the PAL transfer.

    A simple action film, given an excellent transfer onto DVD.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is very good.

    The extras are reasonable. This is not the sort of film that needs an audio commentary.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall