Outdated conventions mar inventive comic twist on 'Shaft'

<h3 class="briefHead">"Shaft" - ★ ★ ½</h3>

Tim Story's "Shaft" promises to be an inventive comic twist on the iconic private detective, but the movie's arresting premise turns out to be far better than its execution.

The screenplay by Kenya Barris and Alex Barrops bubbles with cheesy, crowd-pleasing "Shaft" references, even planting theme song lyrics into the dialogue.

But it fumbles while searching for a consistent comic tone, seesawing between parody and a straightforward action film booby-trapped with humor.

This crime tale gives us three generations of John Shafts ­- Richard Roundtree's angry and violent 1971 original, Samuel L. Jackson's tough nut 2000 incarnation, plus Jessie T. Usher's more cerebral, MIT-educated 20-something - uniting to take down a drug-smuggling operation.

JJ Shaft, Usher's ultra-chill FBI data analyst with a dislike for guns, suspects that the drug overdose death of his best friend might be murder. Who would do that to someone running an organization dedicated to helping veterans?

He contacts his long-estranged father, legendary private eye John Shaft (Jackson) for help. JJ's mom Maya (Regina Hall) does not approve.

Here, the movie hilariously juxtaposes the masculine values of Jackson's thuggish, chauvinistic, old-school Shaft with those of the more thoughtfully considerate, white-Nike-shoes-wearing JJ.

"He thinks he's the black James Bond," JJ says, explaining his father's behavior.

"If that dude was real," Shaft II replies, "he'd think he was me!"

JJ also receives backup from Sasha Arias (a spunky Alexandra Shipp), his lifelong platonic gal pal and a NYC hospital doctor who apparently takes a lot of time off.

She represents a disappointingly retro view of women as damsels in distress. Her character serves no function other than to be saved by Shafts.

Sasha has no romantic designs on JJ. Not until he shoots to death several assassins with ridiculously poor marksmanship, an act that clearly switches on her romantic motor.

You'd think a big-city doctor might be slightly turned off by gun violence. Here, it works as an aphrodisiac.

You'd also think that as mellow millennial JJ adopts some stronger qualities of his pugnacious father, tough Dad might adopt more judicious qualities from his son.

Nope.

JJ throws in with the outdated attitudes of his Dad and "uncle" John Shaft (Roundtree) and their artifice of cool by symbolically wearing the same shades and overcoats they do as they set forth on the streets of Harlem - out of step and out of touch.

<b>Starring:</b> Samuel L. Jackson, Jessie T. Usher, Alexandra Shipp, Regina Hall, Richard Roundtree

<b>Directed by:</b> Tim Story

<b>Other:</b> A New Line Cinema release. Rated R for language, nudity, sexual material, violence. 111 minutes