Shaft
New Line Cinema | Release Date: June 14, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
40
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
20
Negative:
7
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJun 13, 2019
No one steals scenes from Samuel L. Jackson when he’s in this mode. His entire modus operandi is to be the biggest, baddest motherf... (watch your mouth!) on the planet. Nevertheless, Regina Hall gives him a run for his money – something she does with a lot less screen time. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleCary DarlingJun 13, 2019
Despite lapses in the script, there is a palpable chemistry between Usher and Jackson, and the humor that sparks between the two is what carries the film through its fairly predictable paces. Read full review
70
VarietyOwen GleibermanJun 12, 2019
The movie is product, but by the end you want to see this team again. Read full review
67
UproxxVince ManciniJan 2, 2020
While I cannot resist an hour plus of delightful Sam Jacksonian shit talk, neither can I in good conscience recommend you staying for the entirety of this film. Read full review
63
Washington PostKristen Page-KirbyJun 12, 2019
Shaft is also funny, with a sharp, fast-paced humor (though one transphobic joke is a tone-deaf clunker). And it’s always enjoyable to watch Jackson walking around while dropping f-bombs (and mother-f-bombs) all over the place. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicKerry LengelJun 12, 2019
In the end, this may be a case of a pop-culture icon being dragged down by the weight of trying remain relevant past its prime. It’s not woke, but you can’t call it racist. Maybe racist-ish. Misogynistic-ish. Entertaining-ish. Read full review
60
We Got This CoveredLuke ParkerJun 12, 2019
With a greener blend of heart and humor, Shaft safely ushers in the vigilante detective for modern audiences, though safety never seemed to be a factor before. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyJun 12, 2019
To listen to Jackson doing street talk is akin to reveling in Olivier reciting Shakespeare — in other words, it's one of the great pleasures of the language. Edit the film down to his dialogue and you have a wonderful greatest hits collection. Read full review
60
TheWrapCandice FrederickJun 12, 2019
Though there is a comforting nostalgia from seeing the Shaft men stick it to the man while simultaneously holding on to their old-school alpha-male swagger, Junior’s presence adds a much needed reproach — and smartly comedic element — that ultimately doesn’t blame them but instead makes them take a hard look at the error of their ways in the face of justice. Read full review
58
The PlaylistCharles BarfieldJun 13, 2019
Despite its sometimes questionable jokes, provocative cultural trolling and a shaky plot, Shaft isn’t either a full-on misfire nor blaxploitation rejuvenation. Instead, Shaft is a decent, if slightly tepid, action comedy anchored by a hilarious performance by Samuel L. Jackson. Read full review
50
The Film StageJohn FinkJul 11, 2019
Despite a few laughs, it’s a film that panders to a general audience with the funky musical score of a blaxploitation flick but none of the heart, spirit, or outrage. Read full review
50
Film ThreatAlex SavelievJun 15, 2019
Shaft attempts to hide its own prejudices by simply acknowledging those issues, without so much as a trace of depth or substance. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJun 13, 2019
It’s arguably the weakest, lamest and least memorable entry in the history of the franchise. It’s also crass and tone-deaf. And played mostly for laughs that are few and far between. Read full review
50
Original-CinLiam LaceyJun 13, 2019
The confrontations involve a lot of prolonged, quasi-slapstick bullet-spraying firefights, which are hard on windows… and on viewers’ patience. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJun 13, 2019
You occasionally sense the presence of an interesting movie struggling to get out of this hyperactive action comedy — or even just a better Tim Story action comedy, something like “Ride Along” or “Ride Along 2.” Read full review
50
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonJun 12, 2019
The plot particulars are flimsy and laughable by design — this Shaft has been put together by folks with an instinct for comedy. Read full review
50
The Associated PressLindsey BahrJun 12, 2019
How jokes this offensive can make it to the screen in 2019 is beyond comprehension and a bit of a shame, considering that this has so much else going for it including a delightful late-game appearance by the original Shaft, Richard Roundtree, who looks fantastic, by the way. Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenJun 12, 2019
What we have here is a standard-issue comedy-tinged crime thriller indifferently directed by Tim Story (the “Think Like a Man” and “Ride Along” movies). Its nothing-special plot, the product of writers Kenya Barris and Alex Barnow, features ill-defined villains and briefly touches on Islamophobia and military veteran PTSD and drug abuse — and never follows up on any of those issues. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyJun 12, 2019
Among all the cardinal sins of moviemaking it commits (up to and including reusing an iconic needle drop from a Martin Scorsese movie), the worst is this: It makes Shaft look uncool. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreJun 12, 2019
I appreciate the direction they wanted to take this, but the jokes needed work, the ridicule should be more directed at Jackson’s character’s various blind spots and intolerances — “This is my ‘Puerto Ricans I don’t trust’ file.” — and disrespect for human rights. Read full review
42
ConsequenceMike VanderbiltJun 12, 2019
While that can be entertaining at times, Shaft mostly reads as an oddly sexless, convoluted, and downright dull continuation. It’s as if the creators are afraid to take the character seriously in an age of ironic detachment. It’s a missed opportunity, particularly at the chance to comment on how being a “complicated man” has evolved since 1971, and how the world has never simply been black and white. Oh, well. Read full review
40
Rolling StonePeter TraversJun 17, 2019
By the end, when the three Shafts hit the streets in identical long coats like something out of The Matrix, the message is clear. Rough justice is back to stay. Women are out of the picture, except for sex. Dinosaurs again walk the earth with misogynistic and homophobic impunity. These are the laughs, folks. Don’t be surprised if they stick in your throat. Read full review
40
CNNBrian LowryJun 13, 2019
A private eye who's "a sex machine to all the chicks," as the song went back in 1971, isn't exactly tailor-made to 2019. The new "Shaft" plays with that tension but yields mixed results, in an action comedy that's neither consistently funny nor especially exciting, despite Samuel L. Jackson's second stab at the part. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisJun 12, 2019
Times sure have changed since the old Shaft made women swoon by simply treating them like sh*t. As for the new Shaft, is he still a bad mutha? Shut your mouth. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranJun 12, 2019
The plotting is so leaden and the fire fights so pro forma that not even the sight of the three Shafts in action can keep this film from sinking under its own weight. Yes, the great Isaac Hayes music makes an appearance, but the old days are gone and they are not coming back. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)John SemleyJun 13, 2019
In its neediness to be liked, the new Shaft – the third of five films in the series to be titled, simply, Shaft – says everything and nothing. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshJun 12, 2019
Cool New York City detective John Shaft is back again in, you guessed it, Shaft, with a modern update that goes completely sideways in all the wrong ways. This Shaft is a bad mother all right, and it'd be better if he just shut his mouth. Read full review
35
IGNWilliam BibbianiJun 12, 2019
Tim Story takes a classic movie franchise and drains it of all the action, sex and topicality that made it worth revisiting in the first place. Jackson, Roundtree and Usher have star power to spare but they’re asked to perform embarrassing and ignorant comedy routines, and the action is so unremarkable that the movie can’t even rely on that spectacle to compensate. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineKeith WatsonJun 14, 2019
Ultimately, the only truly retro thing about this weirdly reactionary potboiler is its politics. Read full review
20
The GuardianBenjamin LeeJun 18, 2019
Even outside of the script’s aggressively repetitive bigotry, the shambolic Scooby Doo plot struggles to grab even the slightest amount of attention. Read full review
12
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonJun 14, 2019
The plot is completely forgettable and Story’s direction is atrocious here. He can’t balance the numerous attempts at unfunny comedy with the sudden outbursts of extreme gunplay. The action sequences lack any sense of excitement and only once do the stars of comedy and action align. Read full review
10
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJun 15, 2019
It’s so aggressively puerile and phallocentric (big swinging dicks, big guns) it could be taken as a parody of a puerile, phallocentric action comedy — a hotfoot to feminists and girly-men. That’s a distinction without a difference, though, since either way it stinks to heaven. Read full review
More From This Movie

40 Critic Reviews

6.5 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL