The Reel Rejects - POETIC JUSTICE (1993) MOVIE REVIEW!!! FIRST TIME WATCHING!!!

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

THE ICONIC JOHN SINGLETON DIRECTS TUPAC & JANET JACKSON!! Poetic Justice Full Reaction Watch Along: https://www.patreon.com/thereelrejects Follow Us On Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/  Tik-Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thereelrejects?lang=en Twitter: https://x.com/thereelrejects Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ After reacting to Boyz N The Hood & Menace II Society, Coy Jandreau (DC Studios) & Greg Alba continue on their journey to the Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood reaction series—this time picking up with John Singleton’s Poetic Justice, starring Janet Jackson (The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, For Colored Girls) and Tupac Shakur (Juice, Above the Rim). This 1993 classic blends romance and drama, following Justice (Jackson), a grieving poet, and Lucky (Tupac), a mail carrier with dreams beyond the streets, as they embark on a life-changing road trip from Los Angeles to Oakland. Alongside them are the fiery Iesha (Regina King, Watchmen, If Beale Street Could Talk) and her troubled boyfriend Chicago (Joe Torry, Tales from the Hood), whose turbulent relationship adds layers of tension. Directed by John Singleton (Boyz N The Hood, Higher Learning), the film delivers powerful themes of love, loss, and resilience, intertwined with heartfelt poetry from Maya Angelou. We react to the most iconic moments, including Justice & Lucky’s First Meeting at the Hair Salon, The Road Trip Begins, The Heated Argument at the Gas Station, The Beach Scene, Chicago & Iesha’s Explosive Fight, and The Emotional Finale. As an extra tribute to the film’s cultural impact, we’re also highlighting some of Tupac and Janet Jackson’s biggest hits—Tupac’s top 10 songs: California Love, Changes, Dear Mama, Hail Mary, Hit ‘Em Up, I Get Around, Keep Ya Head Up, 2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted, All Eyez on Me, and Ambitionz Az a Ridah. Janet Jackson’s top 10 songs: Rhythm Nation, That’s The Way Love Goes, Together Again, All For You, Nasty, Escapade, Love Will Never Do (Without You), Any Time, Any Place, Control, and Again. Poetic Justice was a defining film of the ‘90s, and we’re diving into all its highs, lows, and lasting impact. Follow Coy Jandreau:  Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@coyjandreau?l... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coyjandreau/?hl=en Twitter:  https://twitter.com/CoyJandreau YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwYH2szDTuU9ImFZ9gBRH8w Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Music Used In Manscaped Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did you know that at Chevron, you can fuel up on unbeatable mileage and savings? With Chevron rewards, you'll get 25 cents off per gallon on your next five visits. All you have to do is download the Chevron app and join to start saving on fuel. Then you can keep fueling up on other things like adventure, memories, vacations, daycations, quality time, and so many other possibilities. Head to your nearest Chevron station to fuel up and get rewarded today. Terms apply. See Chevron Texcores.com for more details. On WhatsApp, no one can see or hear your personal messages,

whether it's a voice call, message, or sending a password. To WhatsApp, it's all just this. So whether you're sharing the streaming password in the family chat or trading those late-night voice messages that could basically become a podcast, your personal messages, stay between you, your friends, and your family. No one else, not even us. WhatsApp, message privately with everyone. Introducing the new Volvo XC90 with seven-seat versatility,

Google built-in, and advanced safety features for all your precious cargo. The new Volvo XC90, designed for life. Visit volvocars.com slash us to learn more. Reject Nation right now, I am at the preserve here in L.A. We're on February 22nd this coming Saturday. The real rejects, all of us, are going to be having a panel here at Multicon. In addition to that, myself and Koi are going to be hosting two separate other panels and there's going to be a lot of guests way bigger than ourselves who are going to be here

and yes we're going to hang out with us we're going to talk or chat we're going to have a great old time please if you haven't gotten your tickets go get your tickets and oh yeah all proceeds go to the los angeles wildfire recovery efforts so it's all band together for a good cause getting your ticket is going to be for a good cause hope to see you there saturday reject nation all right coy they kick butt let's do what i'm excited that that that was a strange journey i thought it was different than i expected it was so strange it was the most a slice of life road trip movie could be while still being something that would lead to don't be a menaceous and central drinking ors

use no hood like do you know what i mean like it totally was we compared and i hate that people think i'm just comics but i we totally compared the Avengers experience of like doing all these movies leading up to something right this was the Guardians of the Galaxy like this was the most like we're going to go over there

and we're going to make it work somehow and it took me a bit to get into but once I was in I was in I'll admit it like it took me a little longer than I was expecting but like I was so enamored by the two relationships like one ending when starting I really love the editing between the two

where it was like an experience of literal versus like you know a metaphor and like they really played around with stuff i the one thing i didn't like was that they cast two incredible musicians as the lead actors and both of their arcs involved artistry and discovering themselves through their art like both are that was very important to both one was through the poetry she became more confident and she used that to express herself and her poetry got stronger her actual rhyme ability but in its in its formatting and its actual word use got stronger as went which I think must have been conscious like they

their rhymes and her confidence in them became stronger and then his opinion of creativity and like he fought for that the whole time and then he ended up with the music and like all of that felt like this great undercurrent I was hoping the only thing I felt like I didn't get was that when the relationship was solidified there would be something that allowed the music to feel solidified because I feel like the musicality of the subtext like it was like the

B plot all involved music and I kind of wanted that just to land all right here's it's cool though oh when chicago hits ayesha regina king she mentions two characters from boys in the hood it's canon

her often seen around do boy oh that's awesome oh that's really cool apparently they asked offered ice cube the role of of lucky wouldn't have been as good that wouldn't have been

that movie was on tupac shoulders okay normally if people read facts or trivia we tend to do that at the very end but these facts are Great, dude. But we've got to read these facts right now. Tupac left the set to protest in 92,

returned to set in time for filming. That, dude, man. I love that. Tupac got into a heated verbal altercation with an extra and a group of men on set. The extra who was a member of the Rolling 20s blood gang so that the 21-year-old, wow. Chakur flashed Krip gang signs it in him before pulling out a 40-caliber pistol.

Wow, but no other extras on set witness. Shakur, brandishing a gun. someone got silent don't want to write on tupac the incident which took place in july ninety two had occurred outside an apartment building near genesee park it's not far two pock later said that the confrontation was over him standing up for a female friend who was allegedly raw by the bloods after chakur made physical threats toward the extra Maya angelo pulled chakura sign calmed him down my angelio wrote poetry oh there we she was on june that's why that woman looked familiar yeah do you should put that together

I'm sorry, Maya Angelou. Tupac did improvise many of his lines. And when she's talking to Jesse, Tyra Farrell in the salon, okay. Uh-huh, uh-huh, okay. If you see something, let me know. Q-Tip played the boy from the beginning, which I thought was just stunt casting. I thought it was like two musicians and a third musician, but if you know who Q-Tip is, that was the boyfriend that gets shot. Okay.

I love that Maya Angelou was the poet. John Singleton originally tried writing his own poems but struggled and ended up using My Angelou. I love that. I love like letting that be a different voice. The movie originally was about two and a half hours, but Columbia requested to trim close to 45 minutes. I wonder if there was like another full stop.

I wonder if it landed with music in that way. Two additional scenes were filmed in two days in the fall of 92 after test screenings were shown. The first and being a scene where justice in her bedroom makes decision to stop wearing black and gray all the time. Second scenes were lucky in his garage plugging in his cousin's music, and thing about justice. So they did add a music ending.

Okay, so that strength that I felt, about the musicality was actually the thing they added in test screen. That's interesting. Because those two scenes felt like as close to a day new mall as I was going to get. But I wish they, I wanted a little bit more. But I do like that they end up with music. Okay. John Singleton's original idea was

to do an Army film because he felt he was upset that a friend of his was sent to fight in the Persian Gulf. It was going to be about a young GI's wife named Justice who would marry a guy who was recruited from South Central Los Angeles and then would go off to live

on an army base in Japan or Philippines, the man would send all his money on his truck and not on supporting his family. He would eventually get mad at one of his CEOs and end up punching him out, which gets him sent to jail. Wow. What is different everything? This is a completely different thing. So he's just going through some shit.

Yeah, like you asked. Like, that's really interesting. Okay. Okay. According to Tupac Chukor, Janet Jackson requested that they have an AIDS test before his kissing scene with her, which was originally going to lead up to a up scene but he angrily refused but it was a publicity singleton claims it was a publicity stunt concocted by shakur jackson and him um wow

yeah it was i mean we talk about the the moment in time things are are you know delivered and that that definitely felt like a moment that was very early 90s the sad news that haywood receives the phone has never revealed the cornered john singleton he left it open for viewers to imagine on their own but the DVD commentary mentions it might be something related aides that's what i thought it might have been i mean the was two mentions between the janet conversation that one and we talked about that with one of the other films too okay yeah i was trying to pick up on the they they did definitely make love yeah because there was a scene between them because he's like you're telling me this now

yeah there's a scene between that happened but they totally cut out yeah though john singled had a de effort and seems more lucky he goes to his cousin's wake and talks over the dead bodies that make him in the movie interesting so what do you think that was odd we're starting with trivia but um yeah like this was one of of those movies where I didn't mention the intro I probably should have dealing with a cluster headache for the past year hours

and that's what I was saying is like yeah you can be really patient with this because this is a this is more of like even though it was where we're going into a lighter film I wasn't at all prepared mentally rhythmically for the film because it is on the slower end it is so much of a slice of life type of experience where like heavy moments of drama will will come in and such and uh i i did find myself

like i'm a little tired so i did find myself um there's all stuff i should just mentioned the intro but i did find myself occasionally like okay what can i really get emotionally from this journey right it seems like you really got a lot from it like for me i think it's mainly i'm at connection to like an artist and Tupac is that like I and this sounds so cheesy and I am so unhappy to even share this but I'm sure it's going to help

people understand. I literally admire Tupac so much that I when I wanted to be an actor was trying to decide and this I he would say this shit I was trying to decide if I was going to move to New York which is only six hours away or if I wanted to move to L.A. And I literally chose to move to L.A. Because Tupac informed one of the most major life

decisions of my life. Because I I love what Tupac represented to like actually embodying culture and I always saw Biggie as New York and Pock as West Coast and I always thought a biggie as just a more surface party sound even though he had incredible albums like Ready to Die is a beautiful experience

Overall I connect to Pock's poetry more and the West Coast sound so I literally picked California because of Tupac. So like this Tupac was the first artist I owned every CD of Tupac was the first artist I got hella you know viruses on my laptop over because I was downloading off Limewire I like hunted down every single track

after he passed away that was like unfinished stuff like he was the first artist that I really I went to Strawberries and Newbury Comics A Strawberries of the record store Back in the East Coast and like looked for bootlegs of his stuff Like something about his music has always really resonated with me And something about him dying so young Was really informing to my mortality

And so I spent this movie more captivated I think Because I was just trying to breathe in two hours Of an experience that I know like I'll never get new Tupac music I'll never get new I'll never get to see an interview I haven't already seen unless they find one. I'll never get to see him live. So for me, this was like, what was the guy going through?

What was it like in his life at this point? I was thinking of the albums and I was thinking about like the messaging in his albums and what his life was at this point. And I was trying to think of like, I even had a moment where I was like, man, I've been to that spot in Griffith Park. That's so cool that Tupac had been there, which I'm not usually about actors. Like, I meet most actors I care about. But I even got like, you know, kind of fanboyish that I was like, oh, Griffith Park. I go there. And so, like, I think there's just something about Tupac that really means a lot.

to me. Yeah, I think, which I hate saying publicly. Okay. I'll try. No, I think, I don't think, I don't think there's anything wrong. I don't think, like, I just think it's so, like, I'm so, uh, try to be professional where I'm like, when I'm, like, when you, like, interview, like, when you work with actors, they're just people. But something about Tupac is, like, above that to me. And it makes me insecure to think that way about a human being. Does that make sense? Like, influence your childhood and your development in a lot of ways. Yeah. As a person. And not just a, a, a musician you admire like his being

his being a poet and a rapper and him being an actor that was willing to be vulnerable while being as hard as he was while being like an emotional through line

for so many people has always made me want to be more emotionally available so there's something about the dude himself that like I always wanted to be more like okay okay

so that makes me embarrassed because it's like when I talk to people and they put people on a pedestal I'm always like yeah but it's gonna mess you up because they're just people so I feel like

I'm in fans it feels like a softmoric thing okay okay cool no that's a mad respect for that I'm glad you admitted that um you should be embarrassed okay now to understand why I'm embarrassed I I okay all right I love Tupac in this movie I think he's an amazing performer like he was just so real like it's I think a lot of times when you are a musician going into acting and you say he was trained in Juilliard so maybe he's already had the acting background a lot of times when you are musician who goes into acting um you can if i feel like you can be a little bit more one note where you might try to hit like more of the bigger beats of the it's not that you're really good at the charm but you're not good at the dramatic beats or you're only weirdly good at like the heavy beats but

when you're just being a person who has to just hang out and chit-chat you don't sound natural sure he can do both really well like he just felt like a person to me yeah like it felt like it really built a whole character you know and it's a lot of times you're taking like the legacy of even if i'm not familiar with the musicians work i can still get the sense of oh there's this big musician who has this blossoming career and i was going to play a guy who's like just a male uh a post office driver you know yeah and he just felt like a real dude like if i didn't feel i i didn't get a one inkling of a dude who was bigger than this movie you know and that's crazy because he's just on like the biggest stages in the world like this is in his career exactly

no i mean tupac has that legacy especially because he didn't live that long to when he was in his prime when he died right 27 oh yeah for tupac to be here and to just be like a guy is weirdly really impressive and he was my undoubtedly my favorite part of the movie he was he was the best part of the film and um i think there's a lot of really funny moments in this film i didn't quite click with the movie and i'm questionable about a couple things one part of me he's going and this is the shitty part when you're like have to review yet you're here only

first time watching it and I'm like I kind of feel like maybe I just don't get this film maybe I not that I didn't follow it not that I couldn't understand it it's like I'm clicking with the humor parts I like the approach of starting off with the once upon a time

in South Central to so they're not just doing another movie that is a insanely dramatic about like surviving gun violence and shit in the hood or dealing with drugs or whatever like that like those elements are there obviously but it's not really the focal point the focal point is just like taking out a couple of characters who are from south central and showing how they found love you know so i like maybe that's just the whole point right there like and i like that i love can i introduce yeah my interpretation is that

john singleton in my just i i don't know is there are so many movies about black violence what if we did a romance movie but we didn't shy away that that there was still black violence and we actually made it more about the black experience that was celebrating black life while still acknowledging what they go through all around them like yeah to me having the ever present black culture and the ever present violence while still being a romance story i can't imagine in 1992 there were a ton of black love stories that were as mainstream yeah it's it's actually trying to hey you guys see these movies and i've made this and this that's iconic what if i use the clout i have as a writer director to tell a love story

but I don't shy away from the stuff so it's still authentic to what the story I'm trying to tell is which to me is important enough to make a movie about those that's what I was thinking when I was watching it that John Singleton was using like hey here's the thing I was able to sell this idea and get financing and maybe make a trailer or something yeah so that way people would show up or they could get something else from return right I think that's really smart and that a lot of the first real poem is about you won't get out of here alone and now she finds someone together and it lands her being I'm a phenomenal woman yes exactly power yeah she finds that and i think and i like the idea of like doing a road trip journey movie um where you do find yourself in in situations like oh cool we're black black family reunion african culture um uh fair like that's a that i think the road trip i a lot of that idea smart um but i guess when it came to them like falling in love i didn't really i don't think they liked each other very much no i didn't really like the real like i don't know if two pox chore and janet jackson liked each other very much i didn't get i got acting chemistry but i don't know if i i don't know if they liked each other i felt like they fell in love because they're supposed to fall in

love and i love a good romance i love a good romantic comedy man those are those are romance dramas as well i love them all i eat those up so much um and i didn't quite buy when it happened and that's why i'm like maybe i just don't get it because i got senses of some sexual tension i got you know when they start being vulnerable with each other um but but where this movie lands introducing the daughter all these like some of these arcs i just felt like there was a lot of this movie's an hour and 50 minutes and apparently the original runtime according to one of these trivias was two hours and 30 minutes yeah and even though it's a slow patient film and it's definitely left an impact um i felt like there's a lot missing on the journey to have felt the emotional arc

that these characters went on. Sure. And I think there's like some, like especially like the loss of Khalil like is so big for this character. And we don't meet him. We don't meet him. We don't meet him with music and the weight of him. We have no connection to it.

The main central romance. I don't really feel a connection to it. Every time I felt like we, I felt like we were just starting with them. Like constantly. Like we were just starting with them to like each other, just to like each other to develop feelings for each other. but the overall arc

I didn't really quite jive with the impact I didn't get an impact out of it I would say more so than anything else and then maybe there's like additional other than the original intention the additional commentary not that I feel like this one is as concerned with making social commentary but they do have like the heavier shit in here

but that heavier shit you see done in the other movies already right and I really like the window thing I really like the looking through your experience and you just have to keep going on I feel like that's heavy in itself like you have to just like you mentioned how like another day and we've mentioned that with all three films but this one was light while just another day was in the background and i really like that as a choice yeah so did i there's a lot of appreciate about it i love a lot of the

master shots of this movie does because there's a consistency of life and you said environment there's constantly things happening around to make this feel really alive that's why for like a slice of life road trip movie there's a lot tonally that really works i felt like the couple between isha and Chicago was a more interesting journey in terms of a couple. But even there, like, they just, it ends with them being violent towards each other. But there's nothing really for Regina King after that. No, we don't really. We see her once after that.

Yeah. So I'm like, I don't understand the purpose of, I feel like this journey kind of ends abruptly. And I don't get the sense. That's the thing is, I don't feel like the sense is like the soprano's ending where it just ends abruptly. I don't feel like that's, none of this is supposed to feel abrupt. I feel like it feels a little bit incomplete. in this fairy tale that they're telling you know yeah so yeah you know uh i didn't it's definitely my least favorite by by quite of a large margin yeah i think yeah i think this is my least favorite

and i think i can acknowledge that while also getting more out of it than than you did and and for very self or personal reasons and i also think that like it felt like it was missing stuff but at the pace it is i get the studio note so i i can see how it got truncated but i also think it's it's the right it's the right mainstream cut having not seen the two and a half hour cut i'd love to now that i've seen it but i also understand all the things you're saying like i don't disagree with the the things you think are missing well it's also uh it's the early 90s as well yeah and i've definitely experienced it particularly with um certain type like i remember i really had fun watching the movie friday um i'm so excited for juice dude and it wasn't until i heard people

who, like, really explaining it to me, I remember, like, being at a party where it was mainly black people and the movie Friday got brought up. And I mentioned that. Like, oh, I really liked it. Why is it such a popular, I forgot everything they said. But I remember being, at least in the moment, being like, oh, this makes a lot more sense to me why this really clicks with the black community, right?

And so that's why I'm kind of wondering, like, oh, is there a perspective that I don't, because I don't have that may be a puzzle piece that would go like a puzzle piece internally, emotionally that would allow me to really feel this movie that extra mile but again i actually don't even know how big of a movie this is or how impactful it is and maybe i'm maybe i'm running the money but most of the audience i don't really i think of juice as being a much bigger movie but that's why i'm like very excited we're doing that one because i i had not seen this one not by choice but it just hadn't come up as often i mean it seems like a pretty like big movie right engleton two pock janeer jackson yeah yeah they're all pretty big uh elements i mean regina king's i mean 35

percent critic store but it's an 83% audience score so audiences like crazy that is not fair audiences really like this there's a lot yeah this movie is so poor um yeah that's the first thing i see wow uh yeah and oh and i like i like janet jackson a lot too i like the emptiness of of a character but that was another part too is it starts off with this death this murder and i feel like it never gets brought up as like a as a real thing she's you know actually going other than the mentor lady kind of dismissing it a little bit um and then her pain in the mirror was like i definitely feel like there was like i felt like that was some of what was cut was qtips death or the the ramifications of qtips death like they're saying genuinely moving and authentically black uh one of these uh

one of the reviewers are saying right um so that's what i mean i wasn't really moved and when talking about authentically black i'm like maybe there's that element there within me that's actually missing to understand that what what feels like super authentically black i feel like i've said some things that can register as that as felt like slice of life and real but in terms of connecting uh i think there is a piece to me that maybe is like lacking education or or uh yeah some type of idea it's a really joke you know but yeah i think i think we both agree it's the third of the of the three but i got i think a little bit more like i i give this like a nice three and a half out of five stars like a solid be for me um street romance i like that's a cool way to put

But I'm really glad to have seen it now. I'm also very glad that you have seen Chewbac as an actor now going into Juice because I haven't seen that in 20 years. I'm very excited about it. But yeah, I'm glad we saw that. That was good. People love this movie though.

They really do. There's passion. But yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, I think that's going to do it. That's going to do it, guys. Thank you so much for being here.

I guess we're watching Juice next. Juice! That's a good one. Dude, it's so good. So good. It plays Bishop. I'm so excited. 33 years ago or sorry 23 years ago i was 13 okay so you've probably like forgotten enough oh there's almost no way all i remember is the feeling of a 13 you were going this movie's cool

and awesome all my emotions are very very like raw but no actual memory of it except that his name's bishop all right sweet and as a kid at the time i was like this my favorite x-man or one of my favorite x-men so okay so yeah all right guys thanks so much for being here we'll talk so Thank you.