Search - Shafted! on DVD

Very funny midnight movie

Scott McFarland | Seattle | 09/14/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"My friends and I saw this as a midnight movie in Seattle a couple of years ago, and we've been renting the video every few months. Glad to see it's finally available for sale. It's pretty funny if you're into I'm Gonna Get You Sucka, Undercover Brother, Austin Powers, etc...A nerdy white mental patient escapes from the hospital and thinks he's Shaft. He dresses like Shaft (a black 70s crimefighter), talks like Shaft, even buys an afro to wear. He decides to be a detective like Shaft and teams up with a kung fu fighting Japanese ballerina who talks out of sync and is looking for her brother's killer. They fight a gang of Steve Martin impersonators, get chased by another group of killers (including Gary Coleman!), go to a gay bar by mistake, run into some zombies, and generally get into lots of trouble before they find the bad guy and blow up his giant pink rocket and save the world. I guess you'd say it was a parody of 70s drive-in movies (blaxploitation, kung fu, zombie movies, etc.) and it looks about the same as those flicks. Lots of shots of the main character dressed in an afro and bell bottoms walking around downtown Los Angeles, funky music, etc. I will say some of the sets look kind of cheap, but I guess that's part of the charm...Oh, and the main character gets mixed up and thinks his name is John SHAT, not Shaft. There you go."

Rough but a truly funny independent film

Scott McFarland | 10/19/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I saw this at the South by Southwest film festival a couple of years back. The film is definitely no budget but there are some truly funny moments in it that made me laugh out loud. IF you have friends, brothers, sisters, etc. who are aspiring filmmakers or just love watching those who are you should have them check this out. It's a little bit "Airplane", a little bit Monty Python and a whole lot of the 70's on a shoe string. The film doesn't always work but it's clear that the filmmakers wern't working with much money at all and still manage to pull off some truly funny stuff. Not one for the ages but a good start from some people who might do something truly memorable the next time around. Check it out."