Release Date: July 23, 1993
Production Companies: Columbia Pictures, along with A New Deal/Nickel
Here is the second part of my Tupac Shakur movie marathon. What’s weird is that this coincided with some news about a lead involving Tupac’s unsolved murder and that I am doing this a few days shy of this film’s 30th anniversary since its release. Probably would have been more appropriate to wait a few days but I have some more to cover. As for the other subject regarding his unsolved murder, I will touch on that in a different post.
I wanted to talk about this film. I will do “Above the Rim” next as I am doing them all in order of release. I may also do a re-review of “All Eyez on Me” and possibly cover documentaries, but I am getting ahead of myself.
Although the poster for this only features Janet Jackson and she received top billing, this is very much a Tupac movie because he was one of the leads and later on when the film was released on DVD (back when VHS was going out of style and people converted to DVD) that he was featured on the cover art with his name on there. It has been a thing for more than two decades now. Then again, this was at the time when Janet Jackson was still huge and Tupac, while popular enough, he only had “2Pacalypse Now” and the year this film came out, “Strictly 4 My N.*.*.*.A.Z.” was released. I will note that I was rather iffy about writing it out fully but bear in mind that the term for that album was an acronym for “Never ignorant, getting goals accomplished.” Anyway, he may have had singles like “Trapped,” “Brenda’s Got a Baby,” and “I Get Around” up to that point but he hit his stride when he came out with “Me Against the World” and of course, “All Eyez on Me,” and I mean the album with that name.
What also must be of note is that this film was also written and directed by the late John Singleton. I had seen a lot of his films, many of which I should cover here. With this being his second film after “Boyz N the Hood,” how does it compare? Well, let’s see.
One thing that separates this film from “Boyz N the Hood” is that this is less of a hood movie and more of a road movie. While the first 20 minutes are spent in the ghetto to give some insight to the major characters and their environment, much of the rest was spent on the road. Interestingly enough, the movie starts off with what feels like a different movie altogether as you see Billy Zane and Lori Petty doing some kind of cheesy scene, only for it to be a fake-out and show that it’s a movie within a movie as it’s shown at a drive-in theater. So this is a prologue where it shows the titular character Justice (Janet Jackson) and her boyfriend Markel (played by Q-Tip). I never noticed this, but while “Between the Sheets” from The Isley Brothers was played in the fake movie, you get a remix of “Bonita Applebum” by A Tribe Called Quest with a similar beat to the former while Q-Tip rapping his verse. Something tells me a deal was made with Q-Tip for that scene or someone wanted to include it. I put on the commentary but nothing was mentioned about the use of that song which just happened to coincide with Q-Tip’s appearance.
Anyway, so the prologue leads to some violence, particularly Q-Tip’s character’s death and sets up the plot. So Justice has been through a lot since her boyfriend’s murder and works as a hairstylist and writes poetry in her spare time. Many friends of hers tell that she should move on and try to meet a man. Of course, part of the plot involves Lucky (Tupac), a mailman who has a daughter with either an ex-girlfriend or just someone he had meaningless sex with, not to mention is a drug addict. Of course, something happens when the baby’s mother was in another room about to have sex while her kids are in the living room just watching TV, causing Lucky to take his daughter away from the mother. The main part of the plot is that Justice and her friend Iesha (Regina King) have to go to Oakland for some fashion event, while Lucky and Chicago (Joe Torry) have to do a mail run out to Oakland. Did I mention that Chicago and Iesha were together? It leads to the two pairs together on the trip.
While the plot involves some things the quartet endure along the way, such as changes in relationships, a lot of the movie has a genre mix of drama, road movie, and romance. When I listened to a bit of the commentary, Singleton stated that he wanted to do a “street romance.” It was written on the promotional artwork for this film.
The story itself does work and I could say that Singleton had an interesting story and script. A lot of the acting felt real, especially from Janet Jackson and Regina King. They did feel like people who grew up in the hood. I could also say that Joe Torry and Tupac Shakur did fine in their roles. Sure, a couple of characters were not the most likable, but I think Singleton was trying to go for a realistic feel. However, Tupac and Janet didn’t have the greatest chemistry in this film. I had seen this movie a few times before but watching it again after such a long time, it’s clear that their romance didn’t feel genuine. While they may have looked good together, there were things about their romance that didn’t click. I had read a lot of sources that talked about Janet not liking Tupac and also that Pac refused to take an AIDS test for a love scene. For many years, Singleton had covered it up by saying it was a hoax, but according to trivia on the TV Tropes website, the film’s producer Steve Nicolaides, as well as Pac’s brother Mopreme confirmed that there was some friction between the two leads.
I have to also say that I had noticed some actors in “Boyz N the Hood” had appeared in this. I had noticed a number of them in past viewings but in my most recent viewing, I had noticed more of them in here. I know this was a John Singleton film, so I guess he and some others called some of the actors and asked them if they wanted to appear in this film. There was also a line from Iesha about “Monster and Dookie,” a couple of Doughboy’s friends from that film. While I saw the guy who played Dookie in one scene, as well as the guy who shot Ricky at the beginning, I wonder if this film was set in the same continuity as “Boyz N the Hood.”
Overall, while this movie may not be as captivating as “Boyz N the Hood” was, I would say this movie is just fine. I liked some of the camera work and editing in some scenes. Janet and Pac did fine in their roles but their romance wasn’t that believable. However, I could say that I enjoyed it okay.
3.5/5
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