So I'm watching "Shaft"

[JazzManJim]

It's on the Action channel. It also happens to be one of my favorite movies. Every time I see it, I'm reminded of why I wanted to be like John Shaft when I was a kid. That Richard Roundtree is too smooth. I also knew that there was just no way it'd happen. John Shaft a smooth, cool, tall black man, and I am not. But there's still always hope that I can come close to that "Bad Motha-Shut Yo Mouth!"

So it is odd that two of my heroes growing up were urban black men (John Shaft and Quincy Jones) and I grew up a suburban white kid??

 

[Marxist]

Not really. I wanted to be Woody Allen. I'm not White, Jewish, or into near-relatives.

 

[JazzManJim]

Woody Allen, huh?

I don't feel quite so bad.

I suppose that, with Shaft and Jones, it was always that they were just so damned smooth. I wanted to be that smooth - I still do!

And Quincy just make incredible music. Everything he did had this nearly indescribeable quality that always just sang to me.

Shaft had this effortless style. Nothing bothered him. Nothing ruffled him. Women dug him for no other reason than he was the epitome of cool.

Damn...

 

[Marxist]

I hated the new "Shaft" didn't you? It was violent without explanation or consequence. Roundtree is wonderful. Did you ever see those Rudy Ray Moore flicks? Y'know, "Dolemite," it was plain awful but funny too.

Woody was so misunderstood but funny as shit. Now he's just a horny curmudgeon. But you've gotta give props to someone who can get who he wants, when he wants to act in a movie AND make a movie outside the Hollywood system. Awesome power. No one else like him.

 

[JazzManJim]

Loved them!

I hated the new "Shaft" didn't you? It was violent without explanation or consequence. Roundtree is wonderful. Did you ever see those Rudy Ray Moore flicks? Y'know, "Dolemite," it was plain awful but funny too.

Woody was so misunderstood but funny as shit. Now he's just a horny curmudgeon. But you've gotta give props to someone who can get who he wants, when he wants to act in a movie AND make a movie outside the Hollywood system. Awesome power. No one else like him.

Oh yeah. I've seen "Dolemite". I'm actually a big fan of old Blacksploitation films. I have all the Shaft films, the Blackula films, Dolemite, Superfly - a few others. I hated the Shaft remake. I thought it had loads of potential - with Samuel L Jackson and John Singleton driving it, how could it not. But it really flopped. I waled out of the theater, and I haven't done that in a long time.

Somehow those films just struck a chord with me. I truly can't explain why.

Yeah, Allen has juice. I'm not sure how he got such power, but he weilds it generally well. And you gotta like the horniness in him. It's not like he's a stud, you know?

 

[Marxist]

But get this, women think Allen is a stud! He's got so much power that his penis seems longer, stronger, and Mandingo-like.

Woody has fucked them all and when he ran out of taboos (young man/older woman, old man/young woman, troll / Hollywood starlet) he went after near incest. What a genius!

If you like Blaxploitation, I know you've seen "I'm Gonna Get You Sucka," which is probably the most underrated comedy in a while. Keenan (nor any Wayans) hasn't produced anything near as solid since on film.

 

[Jellybeangirl]

SHAFT

I just love the word!

 

[christo]

I think that Issac Hayes did the music to Shaft. I know he did the theme music, which is one of the most instantly recognizable songs in the history of, uh, history.