Wesley.not even close.
Jackson was good in this role. He had the look, he had the feel.
Take your pinche color-coordinated sponsored chingada and take a flying fck

"That Shaft is somewhat of but not quite a bad mother"
Doesn't work as well. That's why the whole uncle/nephew thing is ridiculous. It should have be the son of Shaft like it was originally scripted with an age appropriate actor. Or just go full remake and get the confusion out of the way. Instead they did a compromise and ended up with a diluted Shaft. A Shaft that's not a total bad-ass ain't Shaft!
George Carlin: It's all bullsh-t and it's bad for ya.

LL Cool J might have been good too. He's pretty smooth and he would have only been 32 instead of pushing 40 like Snipes or 52 like Jackson.
Still, Jackson didn't need to inherit
all
the smoothness and badassery that his uncle had, did he?
My #3 key is broken so I'm putting one here so I can cut & paste with it.

I think that would have had to do with the writing and directing, not Jackson himself. I'm watching this film for the first time, and think Jackson has good charisma in it. The writing just doesn't allow him to be a ladies man and to kick ass like he did in pulp fiction. It would be interesting to see what Wesley could have brought. Speaking of Wesley, I need to re watch his movies because I haven't in decades.
Has anyone in this family ever even seen a chicken?

You got to wonder how wesley's portrayl wouldve been..If anything like passenger 57,drop zone, boiling point,rising sun. It would definitely been good as well.Cop with coolness..Wesley has that..Richard roundtree and sam jackson are closer in age so the uncle and nephew story in film kinda throws me off. But Love the film nevertheless. One of Sam's best actually..

"I didn't care for the idea of Shaft now being a cop. SHAFT is a PI period."
Well he did become a PI through the course of the movie.
I thought SLJ was great as the original Shaft's nephew.
Having said that, I'd love to know what was the nature of the reputed disputes he had with John Singleton about the movie's direction and who had the ultimate say.

I didn't care for the idea of Shaft now being a cop. SHAFT is a PI period.
See some stars here
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No, you are both wrong. Jackson was perfect.

I AGREE