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Trois starts out like some late-night soft porn on cable, but ends up as a Fatal Attraction-style thriller with some surprising plot twists and an African American cast. An attractive young couple, Jermaine and Jasmine (Gary Dourdan and Kenya Moore), move to Atlanta, where their relationship starts to hit some sexual doldrums. Jermaine thinks a ménage à trois with another woman would spice things up; Jasmine is resistant until a friend convinces her the idea is not so outrageous. A coworker suggests a sexy bisexual cocktail waitress named Jade (Gretchen Palmer), whom Jermaine offers to pay to be a third party in their bed. Jade accepts, but only because she has a young son to support. The night is all Jermaine wanted it to be--but afterwards he finds himself threatened by the unexpected bond that forms between the two women. Soon he and Jade find themselves locked in a fierce battle, which escalates to the point that Jermaine finds a rattlesnake in his car--only is it really Jade who's after his life? Trois isn't tremendously subtle, but it doesn't dumb down the complexities of sexual conflict between husband and wife. The cast is extremely good-looking and committed to the action. The sex manages to be explicit--the movie isn't coy about what's happening--but discreet at the same time. An unpredictable, independently made thriller. The sequel improves on the original. Mia (Monica Calhoun) is a police psychologist who leaves the force to start a private practice, but one of her cases follows her. Mia, whose husband neglects her, finds herself drawn into stories of sexual escapades by Tammy (Chrystale Wilson), whose husband was brutally murdered only months before. To gain a better understanding of her patient, Mia goes to a mysterious sex club called Pandora's Box, not realizing she's being drawn into a trap. The sex club scenes in Trois 2: Pandora's Box are no sillier (and considerably more direct) than those in highbrow erotic thrillers like Eyes Wide Shut. Calhoun (The Best Man) makes an appealing heroine and carries the movie along in between the steamy scenes. Also featuring Michael Jai White and Tyson Beckford. --Bret Fetzer
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