Bosch - Season 3
7.5
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Angered by the truths behind his mother's murder, LAPD detective Harry Bosch struggles to find...
The Good Wife - Season 1
TV Season Watch
In this courtroom drama, attorney Alicia Florrick finds herself forced to return to work after a...
The Town (2010)
7.7
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Doug MacRay, leader of a Boston bank robber gang but not cut from the same cloth as his fellow...
Bank heist cops & robbers shootout
Gone Baby Gone (2007)
7.8
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When 4 year old Amanda McCready disappears from her home and the police make little headway in...
Sons of Anarchy - Season 3
3.0
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TV Season
The third season of the American television drama series Sons of Anarchy created by Kurt Sutter...
Touch - Season 1
8.7
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TV Season
Widower Martin Bohm's wife, Sarah Bohm, died in the twin towers on September 11, 2001. Previously a...
Saul Sailing Snapper (211 KP) rated Bosch - Season 5 in TV
May 20, 2019
Harry Bosch was created by Michael Connolly in a series of books and has been adapted very well for the small screen. Titus Welliver (Lost, Deadwood) is perfect in the lead role as the gifted detective who has a troubled past.
This series opens with Bosch having fallen on hard times. With ruffled hair, leg in a brace and a cane, he is ushered off a bus in a make shift camp in the desert. Shuffling in a line of desperate addicts he waits for his reward for a day's work, a dose of opioids. After a run in with another addict he is caught snooping around the camp by one of the guards. He is taken to the head kingpin who thinking he is spying on them puts one bullet in the gun found in Bosch's backpack and points it at his head about to pull the trigger...
This series is possibly one of the best crime/detective shows around at the moment. It's pace is deliberate and slow with detectives taking their time finding vital clues (or missing them) but cleverly working multiple plot lines throughout the entire 10 episodes.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Season 12
TV Season
Catherine and Nick adjust to life working under D.B. Russell, following their demotions, while...
BankofMarquis (1832 KP) rated Shaft (2019) in Movies
Jun 18, 2019
Doesn't matter.
The makers of this film certainly don't remember those films for - besides casting Jackson and Roundtree - there is no similarity to either of these films.
The first SHAFT was a Blacksploitation film starring Roundtree with mucho gunfire and bloodshed and SHAFT 2000 (as I'll call it) is a full on action flick with Jackson as Roundtree's nephew fighting crime. SHAFT 2019 is none of these - the Samuel L. Jackson Shaft is now the SON of Richard Roundtree and partners with his son JJ ,John Shaft, Jr. (played by Jessie T. Usher) to investigate the death of his friend.
Okay...fine. I can forgive the change in tone and the "tweak" (I'm being generous) to the timeline. What I can't forgive is the weak script (why write any good, or interesting, dialogue when we can have all of the characters say Samuel L. Jackson's signature motherf*^#er over and over) by 3 different writers (never a good sign) that were all, clearly, just in it for the paycheck.
Jessie T. Usher (he played Will Smith's son in the also ill-advised sequel to INDEPENDENCE DAY) is a bland lead with no gravitas and no swagger that starts out young and naive and is supposed to develop (under the tutelage of his father) street smarts but, really, just becomes annoying.
Regina Hall (GIRLS TRIP), Titus Welliver (BOSCH), Method Man (!) and Luna Lauren Velez (DEXTER) are all sleepwalking through underwritten roles just counting the minutes until they can take their paychecks to the bank.
At the heart of all of this "missed opportunities" is Director Tim Story (RIDE ALONG) he directs this film like he has someplace else to be, never missing an opportunity to be obvious (for example, JJ's friend - Karim - who's death sparks what passes for a plot in this film - might as well be walking around with a "Dead Man Walking" sign on him). Story's direction is lazy (and that's doing injustice to the word lazy) and obvious with no spark of ingenuity or imagination to be found.
And then there's Samuel L. Jackson as SHAFT. He defines the term "sleepwalking through the picture" looking bored and uninterested throughout and HE'S THE BEST THING IN THE FILM! Thank goodness his charisma and charm ooze out of him without really trying - for he didn't really try here.
Save 2 hours of your life - skip SHAFT - you'll be glad you did.
Letter Grade: C
4 Stars (out of 10) and you can take this to the Bank(ofMarquis)