Shaft review – regressive sequel swaps out style for ugly homophobia
Samuel L Jackson returns as the younger incarnation of the 70s detective to unleash a toxic stream of bigotry in a misjudged attack on millennial masculinity
How do you update Shaft for the modern era? John Singleton tried in 2000 with a serviceable if unspectacular sequel, a rather asexual and anonymous follow-up to the far more stylish and distinctive original. Almost two decades later and somehow we’re even further from the right answer. Because it turns out that a 2019 version of Shaft probably shouldn’t turn into an unabashed celebration of regressively misogynistic and homophobic masculinity. In Ride Along director Tim Story’s wildly misjudged follow-up, we’re given a Jordan Petersen-level assault on so-called beta millennial males, a strange, angry attack on modernity that feels like the result of a group of bitter men griping about the metrosexualisation of a younger generation.
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