"Shaft" Something tells me I'll be reviewing "Shaft II" next summer.

Shaft is the MAN! In a summer where we have seen a cool Gladiator, a cool super agent and a cool car thief, Samuel Jackson takes the cake as the coolest cop.

This film is slick and Jackson plays Shaft like he should be played, like a Bad Mother..Shut Your Mouth. The plot is very good and the directing is wonderful. John Singleton of "Boyz N the Hood" fame puts together some very good action sequences and also knows when to get a laugh and how long to let a scene run for.

The supporting cast is great and one of them steals the show. Christian Bale plays a rich kid who kills a black man in a race crime. Shaft is the cop on the case and gets frustrated because Bale can buy himself out of anything. At this point you think the movie is just going to be your run of the mill cop chases bad guy around until a big fight sequence at the end and cop wins and we all gone home happy. But, luckily for us the audience the movie does not go like that.

Enter Jeffrey Wright as a Dominican drug lord named Peoples. He speaks with a thick accent and steals the show. He becomes the films second villain that Shaft has to worry about. Wright plays the character so strong that he and Bale fight for screen time as the films baddie, and although Wright plays a villain you want to see more of him and like him. Vanessa Williams, Toni Collete and the original Shaft, Richard Roundtree also play supporting roles. There are some great one liners and Jackson does't come off as trying to be cool, he just is. You do not need to know the original Shaft to like this one. I end by saying I was surprised at how good the story was and by all the performances, and expect the film to do well and I expect a sequel. SHAFT IS BACK