Critic Reviews

The action scenes and kills are bloody, and the performances and muscles are big. After Amazon’s “Reacher,” consider “Motor City” another showcase for the above-the-title billed Alan Ritchson as a credible, cinematic leading man.

When “Motor City” lays off the jukebox approach and lets score composer Steve Jablonsky take the lead with his rumbling, shimmering synth work, the movie is intoxicating and unstoppable.

Not every action movie should be this sparse. A sprawling spy thriller has different storytelling obligations than a lean revenge flick, and exposition is an essential tool when it's used well. But Motor City arrives as a welcome reminder that there are still other ways to tell an action story. Sometimes the most satisfying thing a movie can do is simply trust you to watch.

Motor City, as its best, qualifies as a true immersive cinematic experience. It’s a movie almost entirely without words, but it speaks.

Sure, the “no dialogue” thing is a gimmick. And sure, it’s the most generic script you can imagine. But Motor City takes those bare bones and makes them beefy.

For a while, you think this is a test to see how long the film can extend the trick. But by the half hour mark, you realize that it’s not a trick, it’s the whole damn movie, which relies on the fact that action heroes like John should mostly shut up and that viewers know the beats of these films well enough to do without non-visual exposition.

As gimmicks go, cranking out a formulaic ’70s thriller with no dialogue, with set-piece scenes cut to songs from the era by David Bowie, Donna Summer, The Moody Blues, Bill Withers, Sniff-n Tears and Fleetwood Mac works for me.

It’s a tale as old as time, but the filmmaking basks in its luxurious style as the performances do their best to create captivating portraits of their own. There may not be too much distinctiveness from what’s on the page outside of the lack of talking, but sometimes words fail. Action is needed, and this has more than enough to satisfy.

Sure, the revenge story itself doesn't reinvent the wheel, but the no-dialogue approach and emphasis on sound and visuals make it even closer to the Buster Keaton movies that the John Wick franchise repeatedly pays homage to. It feels like another logical step in Ritchson's career as an action superstar, and one that will undeniably recruit even more of a dedicated following.

A slick, dialogue-free action saga, Motor City rests on the dialed-in body language and emotional sincerity of actor Alan Ritchson as a wrongly imprisoned man gunning for a skeevy Ben Foster. As familiar formulas go, that’s more than enough to keep it afloat, even if its music choices fall on the wrong side of obvious.