Shaft's Big Score (1972) Having wished a happy 50th anniversary to the original 1970 film last week, how could we not complete the full Richard Roundtree trilogy? (The third being 1973's "Shaft In Africa", which we'll cover in a future post.
Given the huge success of the first film, director Gordon Parks took full advantage of the much larger budget MGM granted him for this sequel.
Parks not only went to wide screen, but staged a spectacular, air-water-and-land action packed finale, equivalent to a Bond film.
Come to think of it, the helicopter, boat and car chase that wrap this caper up look far better staged, scored and edited than that pathetic copter firefight in "Diamonds Are Forever" or even Roger Moore's endless, extended bayou boat race in "Live and Let Die".
The downside to all this stuntwork hoo-hah is that Richard Roundtree's coolest-cat-in-the-room Shaft takes a back seat to the gunfire spectacle, and he gets less of chance to display those in-your-face attitude scenes that made the first film such a hit.
Too put it bluntly, the movie suffers from a paucity of Shaft-iness.
Moments of fun do erupt, especially between Roundtree and the returning Drew Bundini (once a trainer to Muhammed Ali), reprising his role as gangster minion Willy......(who cheerfully suggests he and Shaft defenestrate a Mafia kingpin and his bodyguard that they've just beaten up and knocked out)
Snarls Shaft at this idea, "There's too much shit on the street already.....", making him the first blaxsploitation hero to condemn littering.
Director Parks even took on true renaissance-man duty here and composed the film's score as well, which deftly imitates Isaac Hayes memorable music for the first film, adding an even more aggressive, funky brass section.
All in all, a fun, 3 star (***) diversion, an not to be missed by anyone taking sentimental journeys into 70's action cinema. Who wouldn't love watching Richard Roundtree expertly dodge over 500,000 rounds of machine gun fire......right on, baby.
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