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John Shaft is back in this action-packed follow-up to one of the films that helped define blaxploitation; Shaft. Richard Roundtree once again rocks the brown leather coat as John Shaft, the smooth, no-nonsense private eye whose very name is a not-so-subtle nod to manhood.
In “Shaft’s Big Score”, private detective John Shaft is drawn into a dangerous case when his friend Cal Asby, a Harlem businessman, is murdered in an explosion. As Shaft investigates, he discovers that Asby was involved in a high-stakes money laundering operation tied to both the mafia and a corrupt local politician. With rival criminals and the police closing in, Shaft navigates a web of deception and violence while trying to protect Asby’s sister and retrieve the missing fortune.
Much like its predecessor, “Shaft’s Big Score” remains highly watchable, with Richard Roundtree still exuding effortless charisma in the title role. However, there are some noticeable diminishing returns, and a few are apparent right from the opening scene. The film kicks off with a new Shaft theme song, clearly meant to evoke the iconic Isaac Hayes track from the first film—but instead, it comes off as a cheap imitation. It’s hard not to wonder why they didn’t just reuse the original, especially considering it won an Academy Award, for chrissakes.
What’s ironic about “Shaft’s Big Score”, given its status as a quintessential blaxploitation film, is that the most captivating presence on screen isn’t Shaft or any of the other Black characters—it’s the white villain, Gus Mascola. Played with a cool, almost unnervingly calm demeanor by Joseph Mascolo, he steals every scene he’s in. Unlike the loud, over-the-top antagonists typically found in films of this genre, Mascola’s understated menace makes him all the more compelling, proving that sometimes, the quietest bad guys are the most dangerous.
The most notable and memorable aspect of “Shaft’s Big Score”, for both good and bad reasons, is its over-the-top finale. John Shaft finds himself in a high-stakes showdown against a helicopter carrying an armed gunman, leading to a wild multi-vehicle chase. It kicks off with the helicopter pursuing Shaft in a car, continues as he speeds away in a boat, and finally culminates in an empty shipyard where he’s hunted on foot. While undeniably thrilling, the longer it goes on, the more laughably inept the bad guys appear. Their aim is so atrocious they might as well have trained at the same shooting academy as Star Wars’ Stormtroopers—unloading round after round at Shaft for a solid 20 minutes yet failing to land a single shot. In many ways, this finale serves as an early blueprint for the action movies of the 1980s, where villains with impossibly bad aim would become a staple of the genre.
The title itself is a bit misleading—Shaft never actually scores big, and the bag of money that serves as the film’s central MacGuffin ends up lost before the credits roll. But despite that, “Shaft’s Big Score” remains a decent, if lesser, follow-up to the groundbreaking original. While it doesn’t quite capture the same magic, it still delivers enough action, style, and Richard Roundtree swagger to entertain. More importantly, it solidifies Shaft’s place as one of the defining figures of the blaxploitation genre, proving that even when he doesn’t win big, he still leaves a lasting impression.
