Shaft

John Shaft Jr., known as JJ, works as a cybersecurity expert after earning a degree from MIT. When his best friend dies under suspicious circumstances, the case resists the technical skills JJ relies on, so he turns to his father, the private investigator John Shaft, for help. The older Shaft was largely absent while JJ was growing up, and the two have little in common beyond their name, but they join forces to work through Harlem's heroin trade. JJ's FBI credentials and cautious methods clash with his father's blunt approach, and the older Shaft has reasons of his own for taking part. The investigation brings the estranged pair together with their family's older generation of street-tough investigators as they pursue the truth.

Tim Story directed the film, the tenth of fifteen features in his directing career, following Ride Along 2 and preceding Tom & Jerry. Alex Barnow and Kenya Barris wrote the screenplay, and John Davis produced. Samuel L. Jackson plays John Shaft, with Jessie T. Usher as JJ, Regina Hall as Maya Babanikos, Alexandra Shipp as Sasha Arias, and Richard Roundtree as John Shaft Sr. Jordan Preston Carter appears as a young JJ. Forty-eight cast members and seventy crew members are credited.

The film is a continuation of the Shaft series. It runs 111 minutes and was made for around 30 million dollars, and its worldwide box office of roughly 21 million dollars fell short of that budget. On IMDb it holds 6.4 out of 10 from about 62,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.5 out of 10 from roughly 1,900 votes, while a critics' rating of 4.7 out of 10 from 129 reviews is lower than both audience scores.