Shaft: the choice to make Tim Story’s film lay down more heavily towards comedy doesn’t pay off: the generational comedy is inert and inept, at best; the action is indifferent; and the story alternates between excessively convoluted with the double-crosses and dark allegiances, and extremely stupid with character decisions. Samuel L. Jackson has made a career of playing foul-mouthed charming tough men, and he is no different here; Jessie T. Usher, by the other hand, is given a grating, unbelievable character to play and he goes all the way making him exactly that. The rest of the cast barely registers. The film is visually unremarkable as well (except early on, when the editing team tried something a little bit less ordinary); in fact, the highlight of the film is the use of Isaac Hayes’ original theme, even if limited as it is.