MartinHafer In this second installment in the Shaft franchise, the film centers much more on mobsters than on John Shaft. It seems that $250,000 has disappeared and mobsters are threatening to kill an innocent widow to find the money. So, naturally, in steps Shaft to save the widow and out-muscle the mob.What was so great about the first film, SHAFT, was its "cool factor". Richard Roundtree was smart, handsome and always in control--a man other men would have wanted to be. However, here he's not in the film as much and he's less a Black hero and more just a hustler with way too much emphasis on action and not enough on brains and determination. The best example of this is the very silly ending. It's Shaft versus a ton of mobsters in cars and a helicopter--and Shaft manages to take out every crook AND knock down a helicopter with a shotgun. All the crooks had were pistols and a machine gun!!! They didn't stand a chance in this ridiculous finale.I was an enormous fan of the original SHAFT (1971) and because of that I was sure to seek out this sequel. Unfortunately, so much of what I loved in the original was gone and this turned out to be just another action picture. For example, the great tune "Shaft" by Isaac Hayes was gone and the music was rather bland. While still watchable, it's also rather brainless and forgettable--earning a 5. Sadly, the next film SHAFT IN Africa is even worse.

Boba_Fett1138 Shaft really was the African-American answer to the popular James Bond franchise. This movie shows this perhaps more than any of the other Shaft movies. Violence, girls, sex, chases, "Shaft's Big Score!" has it all!By no means any of the Shaft movies are among the greatest of all time. Nevertheless they are extremely memorable thanks to its main character, played by Richard Roundtree. He's hip, digs his women and isn't afraid to hold back when it comes to action. He's a classic and important iconic African-American character from the '70's.The movie its story and plot lines are a bit messy (in that way this movie also resembles James Bond movies), which also makes the movie unclear and not always totally interesting to follow. The movie also really lacks a good main ruthless villain. The villain in this movie is perhaps introduced a bit too late to really leave his mark on the movie. In that way "Shaft's Big Score!" is a really lacking movie, when it comes down to its story, storytelling and characters.Thankfully the movie isn't lacking in action and great dialog. Some of the dialog is just brilliant and suits the atmosphere of the movie- and its time period extremely well. Also of course the music adds to this atmosphere. But surprisingly good is also the action in the movie. The movie doesn't really feature that much action but the lack of it is made up during the great finale, that features a good old fashioned typical '70's car chase, boat chase and helicopter chase in one, James Bond style. It's really true that the ending makes up a lot. It makes you forget some of the weaker points of the movie, although in the end "Shaft's Big Score!" is still nothing more than an average action-flick with one great, cool main character.A good movie featuring the classic character Shaft and some really great action.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

raysond "SHAFT'S BIG SCORE"-(MGM,1972)-Reunited the same team that had put together the box-office smash,Oscar winner for Issac Hayes-Best Musical Score,"Shaft",worked on this sequel which came during the summer of 1972 and the results were another power packed installment that delivered on the first one,this time around with a lot more action-packed scenes and again the presence of its star,Richard Roundtree,together with the direction of Gordon Parks,the script by Ernest Tidyman,based on his novel,and Produced by Sterling Silliphant and Roger Lewis. The only thing that was lacklustering and kinda of disappointing with the musical score that was missing from the great Issac Hayes,who composed a few of the songs from this film. With some of the performances that are completely contrived,this is still a well-paced,fast action thriller and finely tuner actioner that involves our hero John Shaft going up against the mob--again and this time the story involves a missing loot,and a friend of Shaft's turning up dead leading to Shaft to go after the missing loot and taking on the mob which features a chase through not only the streets of Brooklyn and Harlem but through Brooklyn Harbor involving cars,boats,and helicopters. Look out for Gangster Moses Gunn,who was in the first installment is also around to give our hero some difficulty and add chaos to the problems. Rated R. Running Time of 107 minutes. ***1/2 stars."SHAFT IN AFRICA"-(MGM,1973)-Would be the final installment in the SHAFT series-just before Richard Roundtree would move on toward television land as the star of a short-lived series that premiered on television that same year. This time around Sterling Silliphant would penned the script based on characters created by Ernest Tidyman,and produced by Roger Lewis,and this time around,Gordon Parks takes leave of the SHAFT series and it is under the direction of John Guillerman(who would strike gold the next year along with Sterling Silliphant for the Irwin Allen disaster epic "The Towering Inferno")with music provided by Johnny Pate and songs by Motown legends The Four Tops. This one lack badly due to the absence of Parks,and Tidyman behind the wheel. The heart of this project was a disappointment from the start of this film since some of the scenes are very sluggish and there nothing more than flashy entertainment that runs a length time of 112 minutes. The story has detective John Shaft leaves the ghetto to uncover a slave smuggling ring in Africa. From there he discovers that men and women of the Ivory Coast are being carried-off to France as cheap and illegal labor. Of course,Shaft smashes the slave ring and even ends up with a beautiful maiden(Vonetta McGee)and takes out the main villain(Frank Finlay)behind the organization. Very tiredsome film throughout since this was filmed in locations throughout parts of the Ivory Coast and Ghana in West Africa and France. Rated R. Running Time of 126 minutes. ** and 1/2 stars

The_Movie_Cat It's a shame to see the Shaft series turning to self-parody so early in it's run, but after the low-key and surprisingly effective original this first sequel sees elements of mockery creeping into the format. Shaft, he of maroon leather trenchcoat and green rollneck, is now the ultimate supersleuth; a man who screws better than any other man, a man who fights better than any other man (he does get beaten in this film, but it takes three men to do it); a man who outwits any other man; a man who can outrun a helicopter and dodge machine-gun fire. This is a Shaft who does his detective work by hiding in coffins and posing as a window cleaner. And while he gets to sleep with the black girlfriend of one of the gangland bosses he opposes, he doesn't get to do the same to the white girlfriend of another criminal. Now that would have been groundbreaking.There's a moment early on where a gangland boss spends several moments playing a classical piece on an clarinet. The sequence runs for too long, not just for the film's style, but also the pacing. Which, in some incongruous kind of way, makes it a work of unique genius. Imagine Woody Allen playing a slow jazz number in the middle of "Boyz n the Hood" and you'll get the idea. Truly bizarre.The rest of the film's opening is like this: scenes are overlong and flabby, not possessing the required focus and dramatic effect. In fact, it's only until the last forty minutes or so that the movie really gets going. It's nice to see Tee-Hee from "Live and Let Die" (Julius W.Harris) as a police captain, though he fails to connect with Roundtree in the same way that Laurence Pressman did in the original.An increased budget is also evident: Shaft ends the film bedecked in black leather like a '68 Elvis comeback special, toting a machine-gun (as Prince would say). From hereon follows an increasingly silly chase sequence that sees a red Chevy/helicopter chase, then a speedboat/helicopter chase, and finally a Shaft/helicopter chase. Shaft takes on both chopper and rival car while on foot, limping from a bruised leg.Worst bit? Isaac Hayes, for some reason demoted in favour of the lesser O.C. Smith, only getting one mid-film song. Dreary and not of the high standard of Shaft's score (especially Soulsville), it drones on over a sex scene, shown through those curious 70s-style corrugated mirrors. The shot blends and obscures, twisting over the distorted reflections, producing in the viewer a dizzy sensation and making you feel sick.Best bit? A genteel pensioner, when spoken to rudely by Willy (Drew Bundini Brown), responding: "You don't talk to an old lady that way – where's your f****** manners, anyway?"If Big Score! lacks the pace and structure of it's former, then it is still an entertaining, if far-fetched, vehicle. Though its seeming need to create a black James Bond not through equality or empowerment, but via send-up, is worrying.