Pop star Janet Jackson proves a competent actress as a heart-torn hairdresser-poet, who has one of those hate-then-love movie relationships with postman Tupac Shakur, as they drive on an overnight delivery run from LA to Oakland with two friends.

John Singleton's soft-centred, directionless follow-up to his hit Boyz N the Hood isn't in the same class, with a rambling screenplay that dawdles and occasionally becomes tedious, but it has its telling and charming moments.

The poems, which come courtesy of Maya Angelou, seem as out of place in this setting as its two stars.