Product Details

• Actors: Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, Drew Bundini Brown, Joseph Mascolo, Kathy Imrie
• Directors: Gordon Parks
• Writers: Ernest Tidyman
• Producers: David Golden, Ernest Tidyman, Roger Lewis, Stirling Silliphant
• Format: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: January 5, 1999
• Run Time: 104 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0792839978
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #615,844 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

When a pal of detective John Shaft is murdered in a bombing (and $250,000 in cash turns up missing), New York's coolest private eye finds himself caught in the middle of a power struggle between black and white gangsters over the numbers racket in Queens. Directed by Gordon Parks (who does a brief cameo as a croupier in an illegal casino) and written by Ernest Tidyman (both of whom did the original Shaft), this film lacks the pacing of its progenitor. Roundtree is at his best when he's questioning a woman he's just met about a suspect while at the same time beguiling her into the sack (ah, those lazy, crazy days of the sexual revolution). The finale--a shootout in a cemetery, followed by a car-boat-helicopter chase through Queens and up the Harlem River--is preposterously drawn-out: Shaft, impervious to machine-gun fire, winds up tripping, spraining his ankle, and limping while running from the chopper; two shots later, he's sprinting like a halfback. Look for late Muhammad Ali trainer Drew Bundini Brown as a wise-cracking mobster. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nu Yawk's Koolest, April 19, 2002

By 

"imperiallancer" (deep desert,nevada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shaft's Big Score (DVD)

Back in prehistoric times, John Shaft was the role model if you was a nice guy, Priest from Superfly was the man if you was dreaming of livin' the life. Shaft's Big Score the followup to the Cool Black crimefighter series, is a slickened up version of the much more grittier original. Still, the bad ... gets off. The climatic chase has been "rescene" in dozens of later films from Hollywood and around the world and Mr. Parks still doesn't get the proper props for bringing to the screen a cultural icon that despite time and Singleton's "nephew" is still the Man. The late Reverend O.C. Smith is too countrified for singing a Big City theme but the powers the be didn't want to pay Isaac"Black Moses-Voice of ... Reason Chef from South Park" Hayes asking price. But there is a tease of what it might of been in the club scene where somebodys' girlfriend swirls to the early '70s funk. Never mind the usher pass the joint and hand me the gin Shaft Big Score is smokin' Jim.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Film!!!, August 19, 2005

By 

E. Brown (St. Petersburg, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shaft's Big Score (DVD)

Can you dig it! Gotta love the action in this one. Better than the first one!!!

4.0 out of 5 stars Shaft scores big in this follow-up adventure, November 10, 2010

By 

New England Pat (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shaft's Big Score (DVD)

Black and white mobsters eyeing the lucrative numbers market in Queens square off in this nice action film that has more going for it than the original movie a year earlier. Richard Roundtree reprises his role as the tough, sexy private eye who manages to make the ladies swoon and the gangsters look for ways to eliminate him once and for all. The action scenes are good but the final chase sequence, while entertaining, drags on a bit too long and runs out of steam before the explosive ending. O.C. Smith sings the theme song but one wonders what happened to Isaac Hayes and his great vocals and instrumentals? Still, this picture is one of the best blaxploitation films that were quite the rage back in the day.