Reacher's Alan Ritchson's Motor City Debuts With Divisive Rotten Tomatoes Score

Alan Ritchson has become a huge draw after the success of his Prime Video hit, Reacher. While fans await the highly anticipated Season 4, the actor just released a new film that’s dividing the critics.

His latest film, Motor City, just had its world premiere at several festival. It debuted at the Venice International Film Festival in the Venice Spotlight section, and had a later screening at the Toronto International Film Festival. That was enough for the action thriller to receive a score, and Motor City debuted with a divisive 79% rating from the critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

The rating comes from only 14 reviews, and it’s likely to fluctuate when Motor City has a wider release. Since the action thriller has yet to premiere in theaters, and doesn’t have a release date yet, there is no audience score available. However, the early rating is not exactly encouraging.

Deadline‘s Stephanie Bunbury notes “Every story element, in fact, is as a familiar stalwart of ’70s narratives, in the same way that sawn-off shotguns and polyester body shirts are props that embody an era. We’ve seen them all; we love them still.” The review notes, “As this film proves, cliches are often cliches because they work. Of course, some cliches are nothing but lazy thinking… Enjoy Motor City as pastiche, however, and the nonsensical bits can just about be read as part of the film’s retro charm.”

Toisto.net’s Joonatan Itkonen teases “Alan Ritchson shines in one this inventively dazzling action film that plays with genre expectations beautifully,” calling Motor City a “a visceral thrill so committed to its stylistic gimmick that it makes us question who needs dialog anyway.”

The Playlist’s Ankit Jhunjhunwala promises Motor City “delivers precisely what it says on the tin—a glorious, throw-back, 70s actioner. Cue the squibs, blood geysers, explosions and blood-curdling machismo.”

Among the negative comments, Paste Magazine’s Jim Vorel argues “The experience of watching Motor City evokes unwittingly landing on one of those fake A.I. trailers that are a plague upon YouTube, realizing halfway through that the uncanniness suggests a vague caricature of human behavior rather than anything genuine.”

The review continues that, “Though it can eventually boast some entertainingly gruesome action in its last act, Motor City is far too overwrought and self-satisfied in arriving at it, a film desperate to be overrated by genre geeks who are happy to find a reason to praise something that is ultimately deeply familiar and not all that interesting.”

RogerEbert.com’s Brian Tallerico wrote, “Sadly, there’s not quite enough movie under the gimmick, and Ponciroli can’t maintain the directorial grip of a Woo, vacillating between a broad action style and self-serious blocking that makes it feel as if Bergman made a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie.” The review, however, praises Alan Ritchson’s performance, noting he “smartly doesn’t lean into the dialogue-free nature of Motor City, opting for a relatively subtle approach compared to other performers.”

What Is Motor City About?

motor-city-shailene-woodley

Image via Venice Film Festival

The almost silent action thriller follows Ritchson’s John Miller, an auto factory worker who gets framed for a drug deal by a ruthless gangster after falling for his girlfriend. The official synopsis reads, “In 1970s Detroit, John Miller falls for a local gangster’s girl. In retaliation, the gangster enacts a frame job to send the innocent man to prison. Life ruined, Miller plots a revenge campaign against the man who took his girl away.”

The action thriller has Potsy Ponciroli at the helm, directing from a script by Chad St. John. Aside from the Reacher star, Motor City also stars Shailene Woodley as Sophia, Ben Foster as Reynolds, and Pablo Schreiber as Savick.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Woodley also had nothing but praise for the Reacher star. “I was very aware of Reacher, and of Alan. I didn’t know him as a person, I had never met him. Before you meet someone, there’s always this persona from a magazine or a persona from the characters they’ve played. When you play a character as iconic as Reacher, there’s sort of an identity that’s been crafted around you that sometimes you don’t always know what to expect.”

She continued, “I loved playing with the dynamic between our characters, and I love the energy exchange that Alan and I have as well as with Ben and I because they’re so different. You really do feel that in the film. I think he’s so brilliant and beautiful in this film.”

Motor City doesn’t have a theatrical release date yet.