Tupac. I've heard of him, as I'm sure everyone has, but I've never listened to his stuff, and I've never watched any film he's starred in. Turns out, he was a pretty good actor. Janet Jackson is an okay actor, too, but I can understand why she hasn't done a lot of film work.
It's neat to see Maya Angelou make an appearance as one of the Aunts at a random family reunion. And let's talk about this: The film somehow morphs into a road trip picture, with Lucky (and his partner) plus Justice (Jackson) and another woman driving from L.A. to Oakland. Keep in mind, they are in a post office truck -- a medium size one -- and I assume they are doing a mail delivery, which means they would be on the clock. Nevertheless, they end up stopping, as I mentioned, at a random family reunion, as well as some sort of African carnival in the middle of nowhere. They're seemingly somewhere in central or even west-central California before they end up taking the costal scenic highway. I mean, it feels like they could be on the road for days, and all that's really accomplished in these sequences is, I guess, Justice and Lucky start to bond.
That's nice. Because the first time they met, Justice was working at a hair salon, and Lucky was making the rounds. He started hitting on her, but Justice had just recently been in the backseat of a car with her boyfriend when some thug murdered him right in front of her. She wasn't ready to start dating again, but she was, apparently ready to ask Lucky is he wanted to take a whiff of her who-ha, only to prank him by having a co-worker (in on the gag?) blow right in his face. And that joke, I'm sorry to say, was the best part of the movie.
John Singleton does that, though, and by "that," I mean he will show you someone murdered in cold blood, and then you'll have to deal with how the survivor lives afterwards. Is it likely that everyone would be pushing Justice to "get back on the dating horse" immediately? Why wouldn't there be some understanding that she went through a horrific event? An event, I should add, that she mentions to Lucky, but only in the briefest of ways. Are we to assume that EVEREYONE from there has seen people murdered right in front of them, so it's not a bigger deal than going to McDonalds?
Oh, at the drive-in, I should mention that the film begins by showing us what was playing on the screen. It's a picture starring Billy Zane and another white woman. For a second, I felt like I was watching a Woody Allen film -- with the way the film-within-a-film began with Woody-Allen-style music and a shot of the cityscape.
Anyway, if I'm jumping back to the beginning, it's because the ending didn't keep my attention. Once they do make it to Oakland, something bad happens. Lucky lashes out at Justice, and their bonding during the road trip proves meaningless.
But the film so badly wants to be a romance, and so formulaically, it's great that he lashed out at her, because then they can kiss and make up at the end. It's a romance, so it's not a spoiler to say "and that's what happens." But why does it happen? Why does Justice smile and allow Lucky back into her life at the end? The world may never know.
Finally, let me say that Justice is an aspiring poet. The poems, we're told in the credits, were supplied by Maya Angelou. I recognized "Phenomenal Woman," but I would be guessing about the rest. What's Justice's ambition? Does she want to be a poet? Who does she write her poetry for? Just her notebook? Does she ever write about Lucky? Lucky and Justice both admit they're still in the process of finding themselves. Do they see a piece in the other than makes them more whole? That makes it easier to see who they are?
I hate to make the automatic comparison, but when I watch John Singleton films, my mind immediately starts wandering, and I think about Spike Lee films. I'm only about 4 Singleton films in so far, but I have to say my initial reaction is that Lee is the better storyteller, and the better director.
Rating: 2/5 stars
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