Shaft

John Shaft (Samuel L. Jackson) is an NYPD detective who likes to do things his own way, and that usually means that he can ruffle a few feathers in order to get to the finish line. When a murder takes the life of Trey Howard (Kekhi Phifer), Shaft is the first to answer the call. His investigation points to Walter Wade Jr. (Christian Bale), the son of a big time real estate magnate, whose only concern is to keep his family name clean. Diane Palmieri (Toni Collette) witnesses the entire crime, and her life is being threatened if she talks, in addition she is also provided with a large sum of money to maintain her silence. Wade is released on bail and decides to skip for Switzerland to avoid being found guilty, in the mean time the hunt goes on for Palmieri to ensure that she keeps her word. Wade decides to return from his unauthorized trip and take matters into his own hands, he then hires his own cleaner in the way of a Dominican bad man, Peoples Hernandez (Jeffrey Wright), who refuses to be intimidated by anyone with a badge. Shaft gets wind of the witness and tries to track her down himself in order to turn her against Wade, however, there is a battle to see who gets to her first. During an exchange of gunfire, Peoples loses his brother, and things begin to get personal between Shaft and himself. Shaft finally catches up with Palmieri, who admits that she has taken money for her silence, and is now concerned for her life. Hernandez has a couple of corrupt NYPD detectives on his payroll, and demands that they locate where Shaft and Palmieri are hidden, so that he can exact revenge for his little brother. John Singleton directs this fast paced action packed crime thriller, which stars Vanessa Williams (Carmen Vasquez), Dan Hedaya (Jack Roselli) and Richard Roundtree as Uncle John Shaft.