Motives

This film tries to combine several genres, in a quite a strange mix. The plot happens in Atlanta, and involves a businessman and restaurant owner married un-happily apparently with a charity organization leader, involved in all type of dubious activities, including stock market fraud, murder, and a steamy extra-marital affair. The pace and the moral approach is of a 70s TV soap opera, combined with a 90s erotic thriller. Nothing too bad, but nothing original or really interesting either. Characters are one-dimensional, their physical appearance is all that counts. The plot twist towards the end works quite well, or it worked for me in any case.

The odd thing is that all main characters, without any exception are Afro-American. This does not work in my opinion - the American society as I know it is multi-racial, and reversed segregation does not work, not on life, and not on screen. Why? Is this meant to be a revenge to the all segregated approach of film making in the 40s or 50s? Well, it does not succeed to be more than a DVD rental minor film, and the reason is probably that it never tries to be more.

Not to be mis-understood, Afro-American film-making can be great (mentioning just Spike Lee is kind of trivial) but only when it approaches life and minority causes in a realistic and good taste manner. This is not the case here. 4 out of 10 on my personal scale.

i enjoyed the film motives. it lulled a bit in the middle but picked up towards the end when shamar moore's character got deep in it. boy, was it hard to see such a good-looking man in prison garb. i must say i almost lost it.

but on to the matter at hand. WHERE, OH, WHERE IS THE SOUNDTRACK? i own the film and NEED to own the soundtrack. WHERE IS IT? the music is so good.

it's 2004. this film just came out. grant it, it could have been on the big screen. why wasn't it? nevertheless, a soundtrack SHOULD be created for its fans like me. we own the film and would like the wonderful music to accompany it. someone please email me and let me know WHEN the soundtrack will come out. SOMEONE HELP ME, PLEASE. THE SOUNDTRACK THAT SHOULD BE AVAILABLE IS BANGIN'!!! if it doesn't exist, then create it!

tanya

One of the outcomes of the struggle Black actors in Hollywood obviously face (judging from their relative absence on the screen) is that one can afford to have an entire cast of actors who can actually act. Much that comes out of the mainstream film industry is that a star or two leads of relatively unseasoned, mediocre cast of pretty faces. Films such as this, with a notably soap-operaish plot, brighten the screen and captivate out interests because of the talent of so many talented actors on one screen, in one film. It's was an experience to see seasoned actors play off one another, feeding viewers desire to see what would happen next. And Vivica Fox is just fierce. Shemar Moore and most of the others are fine, too!

The plot: An arrogant businessman tries to hold on to his charmed life after an ill-advised affair threatens to bring down everything.

Motives is a low budget, direct-to-video erotic thriller. Erotic thrillers often end up being half gritty noir and half soft-core porn, and Motives isn't any different. The noir element was fairly straightforward if a bit derivative, with a pretty decent twist at the end. However, the sex scenes were so unconvincing and amateurish that I almost laughed. I've seen better sex scenes in made-for-cable movies back in the 1980s when there was nothing else to watch after midnight.

Motives has an all Black cast, which could be either viewed as a gimmick or an attempt to break out of the stereotypical "Black" movie. I think it's a bit of both, really. It's also got a soundtrack chock full of R&B ballads, which really didn't do anything for me. I prefer heavy metal or classical music. Given the movie's demographics, however, this is probably a better choice than Iron Maiden or Judas Priest.

Though it sometimes degenerates into soap opera melodrama, it always comes back to thriller territory eventually. If you're looking for an original, slick, and sexy thriller, Motives might not be the best choice. If you just want something to pass the time, it'll do.

Thin script, average acting, dumb plot but l liked looking at Shemar Moore. For the male viewers beautiful women added spice to an amateur B movie production. Kinda like a porn movie without the porn....watch and you will see what I mean.