Best movie of this year hands down!

Great Film overall

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

I am a white man over the age of 50, so this film wasn't really made for me. That doesn't mean there wasn't anything here, and I could see that this was a quality production.This film had occasional laughs, which was good because it could get very depressing at times.I really liked the family reunion, where the movie's main characters pretended to be part of the family just to get some free food and found themselves being accepted rather than questioned. I got the impression they might come back someday just because they liked being with these people. This is also where Maya Angelou delivered an elegant performance. Yes, this film was worthy of her, and she added something to it.As for her poetry, not my style. Janet Jackson did a great job reading it offscreen, but again, not by sort of thing. For many people, this will be a wonderful part of the movie.One of my favorite parts of the film was the scene at the gas station/convenience store, one of the few places I heard recorded music that appealed to me (Tammy Wynette's "Stand by Your Man").Actually, a lot of the background music was smooth jazz with violins or synthesizers that pass for violins. It was actually kind of pleasant compared to the rap and other styles the main characters liked.Family was important here. Although Jackson's character didn't seem to have anyone except her cat, at least she had friends and a job. I did like the cat and its friends, in the one scene.Chicago was probably my favorite character. He was funny and likable, most of the time.Janet Jackson has a nice smile and she can have a nice personality when it is called for. Sometimes here, she had to be depressed or angry. That's fine. She did it well.And this is my third or fourth time seeing the talents of 2Pac, who was taken away too soon. Although it was not necessarily his finest work, he did a good job here.I mostly know Regina King from "227". Has it really been that long? She was so much older even here, but she did a good job. Beautiful mountains and magnificent bridges added to the scenery. Some scenes, and not necessarily pleasant ones, let us enjoy these longer.These people live hard lives and have tragedy all around them. That's why this is not an easy movie to watch. But having family around means a lot.It may not be for you, but if you need to get outside your comfort zone, this will be a worthwhile experience.

i picked a copy of this up at a yard sale last week thinking this would be interesting. And it was. I never knew much about tupac's acting, or janet jackson's-- and both were well fleshed actors.Tupac's pretty attractive! What a shame he was taken from us so early.Some things bugged me from a director's eye point of view. The trip the four people take to the Bay Area is supposed to be in one day, yet they make like a million stops along the way and there is always the same amount of light out and they stop at places that you would never be able to stop off at from the 101 or the 5.Creative license I guess. And also people were hooking up when they shouldn't have.I also thought some of the poems were OK... but then I found out Maya Angelou wrote them. Hmph, I guess we all have weak moments.Overall, it's good, it didn't move me emotionally, it was just interesting. It was interesting to look at it as a study of how violence and loss can seep into our personalities, at least in the personalities in the movies. Sometimes the character's comebacks when they were fighting each other were more poetic than Maya Angelou's crap poems.So lesson is, if you see this at a yard sale, pick it up.

This is one of the greatest movies. the greatest romance movie to. Tupac performance is so great. he proves he can do different roles every time he acts. this is probably john singletons 2nd best film next to boys n tha hood of course. Tupac just gives a thug from the streets performance to a romantic performance. the movie is fun to watch especially when tupac and janet get in to arguments.

I applaud John Singleton for being brave enough to film "Poetic Justice" -- it's a real triumph in presenting a story that looks beyond Hollywood's usual stereotypes of urban youth. If you are looking for a typical gang-bangin' shoot em up angry urban film...look elsewhere, because that genre is miles away from Singleton's storytelling. This film has precisely what black audiences say they are looking for - depth, real characters with a number of real layers....and yet people say they cannot get into this film. I say watch it and simply feel the messages being conveyed through the hearts of the characters. Tupac Shakur's performance saddens my heart....because he had so much potential as an actor as proven with his performance here. I was fortunate enough to actually meet and compliment him on this performance, which is at turns skillful and all his own. He had that quality that film actors envy in that the camera loved him. Janet Jackson gives a skilled performance as well, and the two have a natural chemistry that works here. This film is worth watching...it's one of my favorites.