Product Description

A mismatched pair pushed together on a road trip from South Central L.A. to Oakland Justice and Lucky have only one thing in common: they can't stand each other. But as their friends Lesha and Chicago fight - and make up - in the back of the van Justice and Lucky find themselves reluctantly drawn together. After a surprising detour toward romance the two travelers are confronted once again by the shocking violence they thought they'd left behind. Featuring the music of Naughty by Nature and Tony! Toni! And the poetry of Maya Angelou POETIC JUSTIC is every bit as intense original and unforgettable as Boyz N the Hood.System Requirements:Starring: Maya Angelou Tyra Ferrell Janet Jackson Regina King Tupac Shakur and Joe Torry. Directed By: John Singleton. Running Time: 110 Min. Color. This film is presented in both "Widescreen" and "Standard" formats. Copyright 2002 Columbia TriStar.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 043396523999 Manufacturer No: 52399

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9437 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 1999-03-30
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 109 minutes

Amazon.com
Director John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood, Rosewood) made an earnest effort in this, his second, film to say a great deal that is true and relevant about living and loving in a violent, difficult time in American history. Janet Jackson plays a beautician and poet who withdraws into herself after her boyfriend is murdered by gangsters. The late Tupac Shakur plays a postman who tries to get through to her, and the two travel on a course through urban America, connecting with family and community. Singleton has so much on his mind that the film comes out a terrible muddle, but there is a certain integrity peeking through the fog. Shakur makes a startlingly good impression in his film debut, and Jackson strips away her star veneer to play something like a real person--and entirely succeeds. Maya Angelou wrote the poems that pass as those penned by Jackson's character, and she also appears in the film. --Tom Keogh

From The New Yorker
Four young blacks, including Justice (Janet Jackson) and Lucky (Tupac Shakur), drive from Los Angeles to Oakland over the weekend. This being the movies, it turns out to be a journey of revelation-more for the characters, it has to be said, than for the audience. We sit and doze, while they bicker and smooch. The movie was written and directed by John Singleton, and it marks a depressing departure from his first feature, "Boyz N the Hood,'' which buzzed with rage and frustration. After a punchy start, the new film takes people away from their troubles, but it's a vacation without fun; we watch Justice gazing out to sea, or intoning lines of her own verse, or plunged in what one is reluctant to call thought. The poetry, written by Maya Angelou, clumps along with a confessional earnestness that makes you clench your fists and try not to laugh. The only live wire is Shakur, with his deep wariness of life, who has a couple of sprightly scenes that prod the picture awake. For all its profanity, however, "Poetic Justice" feels oddly conservative in the kinds of feeling that it shares out among its characters (especially the women), and in the cute domestic destinies that it imagines for them. Like Jackson herself (who never gets to sing), the whole enterprise is so poker-faced, and takes itself so seriously, that you're left wondering how Singleton could have shed so much creative energy between one film and the next. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

I thoght it was just alright it could been better.
I thought that janet jackson part in the movie didn't really give a strong plot really at all. I felt that Tupac acting was better than Janet and the part with Regins King.If your bored at home it's worth watching if nothing else is on tv. Bring back the 90's feel .

Beautiful
This movie is highly under-rated. It is a "love conquers all" story that is beautifully written. The film is a surprise which covers the break-up of a seemingly cute-and-cuddly couple Iesha and Chicago and the coming together of the mis-matched Lucky (2pac) and Justice (Janet Jackson). While many love stories are unrealistic, this story speaks the truth and includes many heart-breaks,deaths, arguments, and hurdles along the path to happiness. Additionally, this film speaks to the true talent of the late Tupac Shakur. Some of the background story lines (such as the focus on the salon owner, Jesse) are a bit lame, distracting, and a waste of time, but if you forget them and focus just on the 4 main characters you'll see how powerful this movie is.

Pathetic Junkstice!
This movie was one of the worst wastes of film and time that I have ever seen.

Back in 1993, it may have seen like a good idea to put then-pop princess Janet Jackson with rapper on the rise 2pac Shakur on a story loosely centered around South Central LA (one scene shows the devastation of the then-recent riots). Sadly, this film is a great mess of nothing, showing the fluke of "Boyz in the Hood's" success.

First of all, Miss Jackson is no actress and much of the film doesn't even make sense. It is never clear why she is so sad and angry. Characters and situations come and go without rhyme or reason, no one in the film (unless you are among the cult of Tupac worshippers) is remotely sympathetic. Janet spouts Maya Angelou's (who appears in a cameo) poetry (trust me, no "Still I Rise" here-this sounds like stuff taken out of her trash can) and goes to Oakland from LA with a motley crew of ignorant, screaming, cursing characters. Incidentally, the Last Poets (the true fathers of rap) make a cameo, but we don't get to hear them!

When I saw this at a theater in Columbia, SC upon its release, the teen and twentysomething audience booed, cursed, and loudly demanded their money back at the end. Wise kids. If you have the stomach to do so, you'll see why.

"Poetic Justice?" Pathetic Junkstice is more like it.