Reflections

Shafted!

35mm, 90 min., 2000 (WP)

Steve Buczynski thinks he's black superhero John Shaft. There are two problems, though; Steve is slightly more intelligent than a Labrador retriever (he spells his name "Shat"), and he's white as a gas range. Shafted! is stuffed to bursting with a gang of white-suited Steve Martins, a Pam Grier wannabe, a recurring Taxi Driver homage, TV-style editing, martial-arts stunts, flamboyantly gay killers, bad dubbing, a toreador with an electric bullwhip, self-reflexive gags, and far too many other ridiculous plot devices to name (all wrapped with a killer Seventies soundtrack). At the center of it all is the buffoonish Shaft/Shat -- complete with leather jacket, plaid pants, Afro wig, and stick-on sideburns -- who is teamed with a cross-dressing Japanese ballerina attempting to avenge her brother's death at the hands of the evil Bob Suzuki. When a comedy throws in everything but the kitchen sink, it's not every gag that works, and maybe only two-thirds of Shafted!'s bits actually connect. Even the not-quite parts are carried, however, by the wide-open-throttle, bellowing forcefulness of the performances (be ready to duck). Think of Troma Studios making an over-the-top blaxploitation send-up. Shafted! should be perfect for beer-fueled midnight movie audiences, and that's not meant as a put-down. Thu, Mar 16, 5pm, State Theater