Teringer
An Exercise In Nonsense
Aneesa Wardle
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Walter Sloane
Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.
zardoz-13
The difference between "Shaft" and "Shaft's Big Score" is that director Gordon Parks flaunts a bigger, beefer budget. Whereas the production values on the original "Shaft" seemed threadbare, "Shaft's Big Score" boasts a thick carpet piled with production values. Unmistakably, "Shaft's Big Score" is an impressively photographed epic with "The Seven Ups" lenser Urs Furrer teaming back up with Parks. Furrer creates eloquent visual compositions with his Panavision cameras, especially during an exciting car, boat, and helicopter chase. Nothing is claustrophobic about this spacious sequel. Okay, Issac Hayes doesn't reprise his role as composer. Instead, Parks performs double duty as composer with three songs for O.C. Smith that he penned the lyrics to so he could take up the slack wherever he could. The opening moments of this "Shaft" have been staged with considerable finesse. The cross-cutting between Shaft at the wheel of a car in route to meet with a close friend, Cal Asby (Robert Kya-Hill) and the friend pacing his insurance office is nicely done. Joseph Mascolo's mafia villain is not your usual thuggish type. He is an accomplished clarinet player who appreciates the finer things in life. Ernest Tidyman, who created the "Shaft" character, penned the sequel, and he doesn't retread the original. Crime boss Bumpy Jones (Moses Gunn of "Shaft") and his bodyguard Willy (Drew Bundini Brown) reappear here, too, but Captain Bollin (Julius W. Harris of "Live and Let Die") replaces Lieutenant Vic Androzzi (Charles Cioffi of "Shaft").Yes, there is a coffee gag reminiscent of the original where Shaft orders his coffee black from Bollin's subordinate Cooper. Naturally, when Cooper returns, he hands Shaft a coffee with cream and three sugars.A partner in a New York City numbers racket, Cal Asby, dies in an explosion and his partner John Kelly (Wally Taylor of "Rocky III") searches for the loot that Asby cleaned out of the safe. Meanwhile, the Mafia wants half of the action, and Kelly already owes mob boss Gus Mascola (Joseph Mascolo of "Jaws 2") a quarter of a million dollars. Kelly has a gambling debt that he owes Mascola, and Mascola wants to cut up the numbers racket that Asby and Kelly have. As it turns out, Cal Asby's half of the organization belongs to his younger sister, Arna Asby (Rosalind Miles of "The Black Six"), and she is in bed with private detective John Shaft when Asby calls Shaft at 2 AM and informs him that he has deposited $5-thousand in his bank account. Asby and Shaft are friends so when Ashby dies in the explosion, Captain Bollin wonders if Shaft hasn't gone over to the other side because he saw Shaft speaking with Bumpy and Willy after Asby's funeral. Bollin knows that Asby and Kelly are running numbers, but they haven't harassed their operation because it doesn't involve loan sharking, drugs, and prostitution. Meanwhile, Kelly learns from custodian, Jesse (Jimmy Hayeson) at the funeral home that Asby had a shopping bag with him before he died and he entered the casket display room where the models are arranged for customers to review. Shaft wants answers from Kelly, and Kelly asks that Gus take Shaft off his back. Shaft outsmarts a couple of Italian mobsters who call on him.Eventually, Gus and his men get to Shaft and rough him up behind a Mother Ike's night club. This entire scene is lensed in slow-motion. If turnabout is fair play, Shaft retaliates later when Willy and he masquerade as window washers and break into Gus's luxurious penthouse. Shaft beats up Gus, and Willy drops Pascal (Joe Santos of "Blue Thunder") with a bottle across the top of his head. Afterward, Gus tells Pascal to take the red peppers that he sent him out to fetch and use them as suppositories. Anyway, Kelly concludes that Asby must have stashed the loot in his coffin so he takes a crew out to the Oakland cemetery, and they exhume the casket. The Italians descend on the graveyard by helicopter. Gus gets every dollar bill from Kelly because Kelly owes him everything, and then Pascal's men riddle the lot of them with lead. By this time, Shaft has shown up, and he surprises the Italians, disarms them, and takes Gus as a hostage. Kelly's girlfriend, Rita (Kathy Imrie of "16 Blocks"), takes the wheel while Shaft slams Gus into the backseat. Pascal pursues them in a Dodge Charger for a lengthy, careening, high speed automobile chase. The Italians in the helicopter code-named 2-4 Whiskey hover over the scene, and a marksman with a sniper rifle takes potshots at them. Shaft returns fire with what appears to be an automatic shotgun. Shaft transfers Mascola to a speedboat and cuffs him to it. Finally, Mascola dies when the speedboat that Shaft stole hits an embankment and blows up. The helicopter continues its pursuit of Shaft through an old, abandoned factory building. Indeed, this chase looks like something out of either Alfred Hitchcock or James Bond. Shaft stashes the $250-thousand in the weeds and shoots Pascal and then takes out the helicopter."Shaft's Big Score" lives up to its title. The plot is complicated enough without being obtuse. The visual look and design are impeccable. This is such a polished piece of celluloid that it's difficult to believe that Parks and Furrer could exhibit such artistry. Several women appear nude from the waist up. Parks appears in a cameo in Mother Ike's night club. The scene at the elevator between Kelly and an elderly African-American lady is hilarious. Kelly complains about her use of the elevator, and she asks him where his f*&king manners are. The music is different and bolsters the savage action. Roundtree nails the Shaft persona again, and the rest of the cast is good, especially Joe Santos as Pascal. Parks doesn't wear out his welcome either as "Shaft's Big Score" clocks in at a 105 minutes. This is a vintage example of blaxploitation as its slickest.
MartinHafer
In this second installment in the Shaft franchise, the film centers much more on mobsters than on John Shaft. It seems that $250,000 has disappeared and mobsters are threatening to kill an innocent widow to find the money. So, naturally, in steps Shaft to save the widow and out-muscle the mob.What was so great about the first film, SHAFT, was its "cool factor". Richard Roundtree was smart, handsome and always in control--a man other men would have wanted to be. However, here he's not in the film as much and he's less a Black hero and more just a hustler with way too much emphasis on action and not enough on brains and determination. The best example of this is the very silly ending. It's Shaft versus a ton of mobsters in cars and a helicopter--and Shaft manages to take out every crook AND knock down a helicopter with a shotgun. All the crooks had were pistols and a machine gun!!! They didn't stand a chance in this ridiculous finale.I was an enormous fan of the original SHAFT (1971) and because of that I was sure to seek out this sequel. Unfortunately, so much of what I loved in the original was gone and this turned out to be just another action picture. For example, the great tune "Shaft" by Isaac Hayes was gone and the music was rather bland. While still watchable, it's also rather brainless and forgettable--earning a 5. Sadly, the next film SHAFT IN Africa is even worse.
raysond
"SHAFT'S BIG SCORE"-(MGM,1972)-Reunited the same team that had put together the box-office smash,Oscar winner for Issac Hayes-Best Musical Score,"Shaft",worked on this sequel which came during the summer of 1972 and the results were another power packed installment that delivered on the first one,this time around with a lot more action-packed scenes and again the presence of its star,Richard Roundtree,together with the direction of Gordon Parks,the script by Ernest Tidyman,based on his novel,and Produced by Sterling Silliphant and Roger Lewis. The only thing that was lacklustering and kinda of disappointing with the musical score that was missing from the great Issac Hayes,who composed a few of the songs from this film. With some of the performances that are completely contrived,this is still a well-paced,fast action thriller and finely tuner actioner that involves our hero John Shaft going up against the mob--again and this time the story involves a missing loot,and a friend of Shaft's turning up dead leading to Shaft to go after the missing loot and taking on the mob which features a chase through not only the streets of Brooklyn and Harlem but through Brooklyn Harbor involving cars,boats,and helicopters. Look out for Gangster Moses Gunn,who was in the first installment is also around to give our hero some difficulty and add chaos to the problems. Rated R. Running Time of 107 minutes. ***1/2 stars."SHAFT IN AFRICA"-(MGM,1973)-Would be the final installment in the SHAFT series-just before Richard Roundtree would move on toward television land as the star of a short-lived series that premiered on television that same year. This time around Sterling Silliphant would penned the script based on characters created by Ernest Tidyman,and produced by Roger Lewis,and this time around,Gordon Parks takes leave of the SHAFT series and it is under the direction of John Guillerman(who would strike gold the next year along with Sterling Silliphant for the Irwin Allen disaster epic "The Towering Inferno")with music provided by Johnny Pate and songs by Motown legends The Four Tops. This one lack badly due to the absence of Parks,and Tidyman behind the wheel. The heart of this project was a disappointment from the start of this film since some of the scenes are very sluggish and there nothing more than flashy entertainment that runs a length time of 112 minutes. The story has detective John Shaft leaves the ghetto to uncover a slave smuggling ring in Africa. From there he discovers that men and women of the Ivory Coast are being carried-off to France as cheap and illegal labor. Of course,Shaft smashes the slave ring and even ends up with a beautiful maiden(Vonetta McGee)and takes out the main villain(Frank Finlay)behind the organization. Very tiredsome film throughout since this was filmed in locations throughout parts of the Ivory Coast and Ghana in West Africa and France. Rated R. Running Time of 126 minutes. ** and 1/2 stars
preppy-3
I hated the first "Shaft". It was very low-budget with flimsy sets, a lousy script and a horrible lead performance by Richard Roundtree. But this first sequel was a big surprise.The budget was upped considerably, the script is well-written and moves quickly and there are heavy, enjoyable jolts of action, violence and the obligatory female nudity. Roundtree's acting is still bad but it doesn't really matter--this film is heavy on action and violence. The basic plot is about Shaft going out to avenge a friends murder and getting involved in a gang war.This is just a movie to sit back and turn your mind off. And there's an incredible chase finale.One of the best black films of the 70s. I give it an 8.
