Shaft (1971)

Shaft offers a memorable theme song and central character though Richard Roundtree's performance can vary from badass to just a bit hammy at times. As a private eye style thriller it does well enough in its best moments though the whole blaxploitation are particularly dated, and not in a good way. To many of these side characters are kind of absurd caricatures in every sense right down to the excessively stylized way they speak. These ideas would later be often parodied to look extremely entertaining but often in the actual films they're kind of stuck between to points. They aren't quite ridiculous enough to be entertaining yet they are not grounded enough to be believed. This film does not fully rely on these elements thankfully and gets along past that enough to make for a more than decent thriller.
3.5/5