Brilliant and touching

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

After making the effective tear-jerker Boyz N The Hood, John Singleton returns to the field of film with Poetic Justice. While this one is significantly different from that masterpiece, it still has its perks and a solid message to add to its formula of an urban-drama. It is the second film in what Singleton has branded his "Hood trilogy," but yet, it is definitely the weakest of them all.The plot: Justice (Jackson) is a young woman who lives in South Central, Los Angeles, and is still grieving over the loss of her boyfriend who was murdered during a silly confrontation. Justice writes numerous poems, and narrates them throughout the film. The actual poem were written by writer Maya Angelou, but the authenticity of the writing is the least of our concerns.Justice works as a hairstylist, and one day, a mailman named Lucky (Shakur) waltzes in one day trying to flirt with several women, when Justice and her friend play a mean joke on him. Karma has its way of reuniting the mailman and the stylist when Justice's friend Iesha (King) forces her to come along on a trip to Oakland with her boyfriend Chicago (Torry) and his coworker Lucky. Justice needs to go for a hair show, so reluctantly agrees to hitch a ride in Lucky's mail-truck.From then on, the film plays like a buddy road-trip film lacking the buddies. These characters must tolerate each other to survive the trip, but social and emotional conflicts continue to get in their way. Some of these situations feel genuine, but others feel contrived and meant to happen only so the film can advance.Poetic Justice is very distant from its predecessor, with the only similarities being the setting and the fact that Lucky's uncle, seen in the end of the film, looks a lot like Laurence Fishburne's character in Boyz N The Hood. I can't quite figure out why this one is inferior to them. Maybe it's because the characters aren't as well developed and dripping with charisma, maybe because each one of the characters can be bitter and selfish at points in the film struggling socially, or maybe it's just because.In Boyz N The Hood, Cuba Gooding Jr. was extremely developed to the point of almost going overboard. In Baby Boy, Omar Gooding was extremely developed. But in Poetic Justice, about a chunk of Janet Jackson's personality is almost snatched away. Same with the ending being a little perplexing and open for explanation.But this can all be overlooked by two things; the writing and the acting. John Singleton manages to squeeze the premise dry in terms of character dialog. It feels like real discussions being had by real human beings. And Tupac Shakur's acting talents are definitely the strongest point in the film.Poetic Justice has three meanings when I look at it. It describes redemption for one's previous actions, the character herself in the film, and what the slick writing achieves in this picture.Starring: Janet Jackson, Tupac Shakur, Regina King, Joe Torry, Tyra Ferrell. Directed by: John Singleton.

I was hoping the main character, played by Janet Jackson, would lead to more adventures, like making a career out of her poetry composing, or befriend a nicer guy than Lucky (Tupac). After her boyfriend is killed at the beginning, Justice dives into despair and writes poems to escape her depression. She is dragged along for an anonymous ride with her friend and her boyfriend plus Lucky, which ends up in nothing but arguments and domestic violence. Why is Justice hanging out with these people? She could have made it big with her poetry and gotten out of South Central, get her dreams started and move on from her harsh life. Instead nothing really happens except that she and Lucky seem to share the same views on violent social life, which turns out to be boring.John Singleton seems to put in more bitchy, annoying domestic and social arguments between his characters in this film, Higher Learning, Baby Boy and this film unfortunately lack the deepness of his outstanding directional techniques he used for his first feature film, Boyz In Da Hood. 2fast 2furious and Four Brothers are taken out of the ghetto, but they don't share the rawness and desperation of Boyz. Shaft, on the other hand, is a change to the director's inventory and also shines a few "behind the camera" genius sparks he first showed us in his Oscar-nominated film Boyz In Da Hood.

Poetic Justice is an urban film but within this catgory it stands out from alot of them in its own way. The movie uses some very interesting elements that I was familiar with and like most urban films they use realistic characters. The camerawork is nothing new but some of it is really good to look at. Janet Jackson is good as the somewhat uptight poet/hairdresser who is mourning the loss of her lover while on a night out with him as is Tupac in a rather different role from the ones he has in Juice, Bullet and Above The Rim. Not only is the role different but as a man it's impossible to not relate to him as you see his struggles in his life including one powerful scene in which he catches his baby's mother smokin' crack and having other men in his daughter's presence - I thought this worked great because I know how I'd feel if I had a kid and my baby's mother is bringing other men around my kid: I wouldn't be too happy. The road trip is where you begin to see all the characters(Pac Shakur, Janet Jackson, Regina King and Joe Torry) develop and John Singleton wastes little time doing that during that time...Poetic Justice is a movie deserving alot more credit than it's getting but too bad there are people out there with stupid stereotypical assumptions so idiotic it can get someone angry8/10

Following the phenomenal success of his directional debut, Boyz N' the Hood (1991), director John Singleton would return two years later to helm the second installment in his trilogy about South Central Los Angeles, Poetic Justice. The heroine of the film, Justice (Janet Jackson) is a young woman in mourning of her late boyfriend, whom she lost to gang violence. After this incident, she becomes distraught, swearing off men so that she may concentrate upon her poetry (actually written by Maya Angelou) and her job at a local hair/nail salon. However, when Justice is scheduled to attend a hair show in Oakland, her car stalls. Left with no other option, she takes up the offer made by her friend Iesha (Regina King) to car-pool along with her, her husband Chicago (Joe Torry) and Chicago's friend Lucky (Tupac Shakur). However when Justice and Lucky meet, neither is exceptionally pleased to have due to the fact Justice turned down Lucky when he made a pass at her in the salon. However, during the journey, they begin to establish a relationship even as that of Iesha and Chicago's degrades. The main problem with Poetic Justice is that the above plot synopsis is far too uninspired and unimaginative, which is in direct opposition to Boyz N' the Hood. That film was raw and gritty. Uncompromising in its approach, it attained John Singelton well deserved recognition and praise. Poetic Justice however is not. While violence in south central L.A. is still present, it serves as background, not the entire story, one that is ordinary. However, Poetic Justice is not a terrible film. In fact, it's quite good for the most part. As the film progresses, Singelton captures the viewer's attention by presenting the audience with the contrast of the quartet's relationships. As Justice and Lucky become closer, Iesha and Chicago become further distanced. In addition to this aspect is the dialogue (also scripted by Singleton) which is consistently truthful. As Lucky, Tupac Shakur is excellent. He provides a thoroughly convincing performance throughout without effort. Opposite him, Janet Jackson is not on par. She's fine when not required to display any immense emotion, but when that time comes, she feels somewhat amateurish. Unfortunately, the film concludes with a very weak ending. Once our party arrives in Oakland, the film unravels and becomes deprived of its focus and solidity. From John Singelton, director of Boyz N' the Hood, I was expecting far more. However, I remained entertained throughout if not entirely satisfied. It's not as brilliant as Boyz (which I advise you see first), but Poetic Justice is still recommended. Grade: B-