Hostage Takeover Week Minisode: Motives 1 & 2 Neo-Noir Thriller Film Series with Vivica A. Fox Review

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[00:00:40] There are dangers he never imagined.

[00:00:44] What'd you think, Emery? That I would just go away?

[00:00:49] Hey, baby. What happened? Did you forget something?

[00:00:51] I love you.

[00:00:52] As of right now, you are out of my life. You never existed.

[00:00:56] Well, you said you needed me!

[00:00:57] Just stop doing things that you're gonna have to be sorry for later.

[00:01:01] Behind suspicion...

[00:01:02] Baby, what are you doing?

[00:01:03] Why don't you ask your little girlfriend?

[00:01:05] Behind deception...

[00:01:06] I want you to stop!

[00:01:08] Behind temptation...

[00:01:09] Do you understand that I have a hell of a lot to lose?

[00:01:12] Lies Motive...

[00:01:14] I think it's time we were women about this.

[00:01:17] Jamar Moore, Vivica A. Fox, and Golden Brooks.

[00:01:22] If you ever come near me or my wife again, you are dead.

[00:01:26] Motives.

[00:01:30] This is deep. It's way deeper than anything I told you before.

[00:03:01] Welcome back to yet another Solo Review.

[00:03:05] I loved finding all these obscure movies.

[00:03:08] You might have seen at the video store.

[00:03:09] They're now, of course, easier to find.

[00:03:11] You can get them on iTunes, Amazon, Tubi, Shudder.

[00:03:17] Just even...

[00:03:19] It's just...

[00:03:20] Screen Box and...

[00:03:21] More recent stuff like Paramount.

[00:03:23] It's always interesting what stuff floats around.

[00:03:28] It makes you wonder how even any of the movie channels are gonna stay in business.

[00:03:31] Because there's so much competition.

[00:03:33] But...

[00:03:34] Let us not worry about that.

[00:03:36] Let us worry about...

[00:03:38] The Rainforest Produced.

[00:03:41] Sony Distributed.

[00:03:43] Motives.

[00:03:45] And Motives 2.

[00:03:48] I knew about these because, you know, even though they were labeled as erotic thrillers,

[00:03:55] starring Rudy from The Cosby Show, Sean Blakemore, who's been a big bad on all kinds of stuff,

[00:04:04] including General Hospital and various other Hood movies.

[00:04:09] I mainly, again, I love me some Bippa K. Fox.

[00:04:13] She's a badass and still a talented actress, despite appearing in just such bizarre movies.

[00:04:20] She's like Eric Roberts.

[00:04:21] She will up the game, make everyone play ball.

[00:04:25] And she's just still just a very unique individual who I've never heard a bad thing about.

[00:04:31] That's the other thing, too.

[00:04:32] People assume because you're doing lesser or lowbrow type stuff, you must not be that great of a

[00:04:39] person or actor.

[00:04:40] And it's like, no, she had it going on and she just blended in and started doing some different

[00:04:46] things.

[00:04:47] But yeah, probably why other people check these movies out is just their leads.

[00:04:55] And it's a neo-noir kind of thriller.

[00:04:59] And who doesn't love a good big sleep, L.A. Confidential type excuse for narration,

[00:05:06] you know, Chinatown, all that, all that jazz.

[00:05:09] It's fun.

[00:05:11] It's a good excuse also for, you know, half the time these movies often come off as erotic

[00:05:17] softcore thrillers mixed in with cops and robbers type action.

[00:05:22] Not the case here so much.

[00:05:24] These are very twisted movies with very solid acting, well directed by Craig Ross Jr., who has,

[00:05:33] again, just been one of those other B-movie guys from Boston who did other independent movies such as

[00:05:40] Full Moon Entertainment's Killjoy, the gangster film Blue Hill Avenue starring Alan Payne from New Jacks City,

[00:05:49] as well as just various episodes of Bones.

[00:05:53] And I love his very taut style.

[00:05:58] He reminds me of Keanu Waxman and some of these other guys who made a killing doing B pictures that Tony Giglio's another one.

[00:06:07] You know, again, these guys are just as talented as someone who, or Raul Reigns another one, as someone who's doing a big budget or low budget movie.

[00:06:21] But most of the time these movies just, whether it was they were never intended to be theatrical or they just thought they'd make a better profit,

[00:06:30] they just went straight to TV or video stores.

[00:06:34] But that doesn't mean they're bad.

[00:06:37] But like you say, because the market was so oversaturated with just garbage, it wasn't likely that everyone was going to give this the time of day.

[00:06:46] But now again, this is mainly made for a black demographic, but do not get me wrong at all.

[00:06:53] Like, it is not in any way, shape or form amateur hour.

[00:06:56] It's still competently lit, suspenseful.

[00:07:01] And the sequel starred Brian White, who you might know from various Tyler Perry movies.

[00:07:06] I personally love him as Tavon, the good cop on the crooked cop show The Shield.

[00:07:12] But movie one, let's be honest, we're getting into it because it stars, you know, Shamar Moore, SWAT, and Criminal Minds fame.

[00:07:21] He had been on the young and the restless by this time, but also he was just, you know, on Birds of Prey as well.

[00:07:31] The DC superhero show, but he had already done a few other thriller movies.

[00:07:37] I personally loved Butter, also known as Never Too Big, which was, again, a corporate executive murder mystery mixed in with a fugitive action movie.

[00:07:49] So again, he cuts the mustard in terms of being a solid actor who's ready to, again, just be a likable guy and be very involving.

[00:08:07] No exception here, just such a likable motherfucker.

[00:08:11] Just a cool dude.

[00:08:15] I'm glad he was able to just, again, just make his start doing something like this.

[00:08:21] And again, if I'm going to do a top ten list of his movies and shows, this is going to go on there.

[00:08:28] It's solid.

[00:08:31] And nothing to it other than just a very straightforward kind of movie.

[00:08:36] And except that's just it.

[00:08:37] The plot twists are not straightforward.

[00:08:41] And in all fairness, like he is, again, just there's so many plot twists.

[00:08:50] It would probably make the usual suspects jealous.

[00:08:53] Now I kid there.

[00:08:54] But it was very twisted.

[00:08:56] And the rest of the cast was solid.

[00:08:59] One of the Tory brothers, Joe, was in here.

[00:09:03] Golden Brooks was really likable as the love triangle.

[00:09:06] You might know her from various other movies like Beauty Shop.

[00:09:10] So she's been in some chick flicks.

[00:09:13] As well as just Showtime films and other Canadian productions.

[00:09:18] But yeah, Vivica was awesome here.

[00:09:22] And you just, you feel the tension.

[00:09:25] You feel the atmosphere.

[00:09:26] You are very involved from frame one.

[00:09:29] There's some decent R&B and rap music from for out.

[00:09:33] But it is not intrusive.

[00:09:34] And the movie does not show any of its budget.

[00:09:37] Movie two, I would dare say, was even more just engaging.

[00:09:43] Edgy.

[00:09:45] Now, as for eroticism, there's some partial sexuality.

[00:09:50] But never to the point of where you're just like, yeah, this is going to max hour.

[00:09:56] It'll go for that crowd.

[00:09:57] But it is not by any means software porn.

[00:10:01] It's just, it's easy to label it that way.

[00:10:04] Because you can still equate it as much as, say, to a Night of the Hunter kind of movie.

[00:10:10] With the psycho thriller emphasis.

[00:10:13] As you could, say, a Basic Instinct movie.

[00:10:16] Yes, I realize I'm mentioning noirs from different periods.

[00:10:20] But again, this is a neo-noir movie.

[00:10:23] Rod Hardy, who has also worked on Shamar's show Criminal Minds.

[00:10:28] As well as shows like Battlestar Galactica was one of the producers on this.

[00:10:33] And it's definitely, you know, it's just so engaging.

[00:10:38] I can't say enough about that.

[00:10:41] And Motives 2 was also interesting.

[00:10:44] Because, again, Vivica returned.

[00:10:46] And unlike her other franchises like Sharknade or Trude of the Game.

[00:10:52] I dig this franchise.

[00:10:53] Just both movies stand out in their own way.

[00:10:56] You would have seen them in a theater.

[00:10:59] I would have loved to have seen them in a theater.

[00:11:01] Would have been engaging.

[00:11:03] It would have been, it would have been a mega hit.

[00:11:06] It might have not been liked by critics.

[00:11:08] But if you're looking for other just noir-ish movies featuring thugs and detectives.

[00:11:14] And just promiscuous people.

[00:11:19] And just not even relying on narration.

[00:11:22] But, I mean, just everything is suspenseful.

[00:11:25] The way they're framed.

[00:11:26] The minute all these people walk into these mansions or having a bite to eat at dinner.

[00:11:31] Like, you just know there's trouble around the corner.

[00:11:33] And you look forward to it.

[00:11:36] And that was more than I can say about so many other movies.

[00:11:39] Which just piss it the fuck away.

[00:11:42] You know, this is not to the point where you're like, oh.

[00:11:46] Oh no.

[00:11:47] There's no overdramatic soapy stuff.

[00:11:49] There's no excuses for people to get butt-ass naked with, you know, zero emphasis on anything else.

[00:11:58] It's not anything like that.

[00:12:00] You know, it's very thrilling.

[00:12:03] And the plot twists are very well laid out.

[00:12:05] I, you know, I re-watched the first movie today just to prep for this review.

[00:12:10] And it still took me back.

[00:12:12] I still had to really try extra hard to figure it out.

[00:12:16] Which is not what I can say.

[00:12:18] Most of the time when these independent or made-for-TV or video movies have some head-scratchers,

[00:12:27] it's because they're just, again, schlockily made or a half-assed script.

[00:12:31] Which is very clearly not ready.

[00:12:33] Someone wasn't giving enough notes saying, hey, by the way, this shit makes sense to you.

[00:12:37] But it doesn't make sense to the rest of us.

[00:12:40] Not that thing.

[00:12:41] It's not a samurai cop or the room type shit fest.

[00:12:44] You know who you are.

[00:12:45] It's not that kind of movie.

[00:12:47] I promise you.

[00:12:49] Music's really good.

[00:12:50] Again, as mentioned before, like the main score, I don't know who did it.

[00:12:53] But it was very suspenseful.

[00:12:54] And apparently Rainforest Films who produced this has worked on plenty of other material.

[00:13:02] Just all kinds of African-American themed films from something like The Gospel to Stomp the Yard.

[00:13:10] But yeah, this was just some of their movies that they did along with just Vivica Fox's other movies.

[00:13:21] Two can play that game.

[00:13:22] They did a direct video sequel to that.

[00:13:24] As well as the other legit softcore thrillers that are both a, you know, what feel like an Adrian Lyon movie made for the black audience.

[00:13:36] But actually intelligent.

[00:13:37] Mixed in with some softcore sex scenes.

[00:13:39] So that is as sexy as they so-called got.

[00:13:45] But they produced other movies like Takers, which is awesome.

[00:13:51] Think Like a Man, which is good for what it is, but not my cup of tea.

[00:13:54] And Garbage, like the first ride along.

[00:13:56] So they've done all kinds of movies.

[00:13:59] I applaud them for their efforts.

[00:14:01] This, I would, much like I would rank this as some of the actors' best movies.

[00:14:06] I mean, I would definitely put at least part one as one of Vivica's best movies.

[00:14:11] And, you know, she's had hits like Independence Day and Set It Off.

[00:14:17] As well as her sitcoms.

[00:14:19] But yeah, no, like if I'm going to do a Shamar Miller movie, this is in shows list.

[00:14:24] I'm going to list his two crime shows and then this one.

[00:14:28] And then some other comedies and mystery films he's done.

[00:14:32] And so, again, take away any pre-notions or prejudices.

[00:14:39] You know, check these fucking movies out.

[00:14:41] Movie 2, I have not talked enough about.

[00:14:43] But it wasn't just acceptable.

[00:14:45] Like it went in a cool way.

[00:14:47] It just, you know, not...

[00:14:50] It seemed like for a while it was Charles Bannon's Full Moon and Roger Cormier.

[00:14:54] That kind of made direct-to-video kind of fun as well as infamous.

[00:14:57] So it's cool to see some of these other production companies and definitely one of the better Sony produced movies.

[00:15:06] It was for their Columbia TriStar label.

[00:15:08] But, again, it's Sony.

[00:15:10] And I applaud them for it because, again, for a while it seemed like people were, you know, struggling to come up with material that was interesting or well thought out.

[00:15:23] And, again, you know, just when you see that, when you see that much effort being put into it, you're set for life.

[00:15:34] You buy what's being sold.

[00:15:38] And I just applaud anybody who can do just, again, just wonders with their budget.

[00:15:50] Not show it.

[00:15:51] And focus on the mood and tone, you know.

[00:15:56] There's so many people who are out there who want to do a cool movie but just don't know how to make use of their time or the has-been actors are misbehaving or other shit.

[00:16:09] It just falls flat and it just looks awful.

[00:16:13] So, yeah, no.

[00:16:16] These are very awesome movies.

[00:16:18] And I would classify them more as mildly action, mainly mystery.

[00:16:25] Some romance for the gals and guys.

[00:16:29] But mainly neo-noir thrillers.

[00:16:32] And call them what you want, guys.

[00:16:36] They're not garbage.

[00:16:38] Not even.

[00:16:40] And I would have loved to have seen them play at a festival or anywhere else.

[00:16:45] So, check them out.

[00:16:48] They're often on a channel like Bounce or BET.

[00:16:53] But if you see them on Amazon or on the DVD shelf, go for it.

[00:16:57] They're even well-reviewed by some of the professional critics who review all kinds of home media releases.

[00:17:02] So, there you go.

[00:17:13] We'll return after these messages.

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