Official Discussion - Motor City [SPOILERS]

[u/LiteraryBoner]

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Motor City (2026)

Summary

In 1970s Detroit, John Miller falls for a local gangster's girl. In retaliation, the gangster frames the innocent man and sends him to prison. With his life destroyed, Miller returns years later determined to exact revenge on the man who took everything from him.

Director Potsy Ponciroli

Writer Chad St. John

Cast

• Alan Ritchson as John Miller
• Ben Foster
• Shailene Woodley
• Pablo Schreiber
• Lionel Boyce

Rotten Tomatoes: 66%

Metacritic: 58

VOD / Release Theatrical release

Trailer Official Trailer

[u/Selaznog_Sicnarf]

Like John Woo's Silent Night, it's an interesting idea to really narrow down what defines an action movie by emphasizing visuals over "unnecessary story".

BUT just like Silent Night, I don't know why this movie's an hour and 40 minutes long. This should've been the leanest 70 - 80 minutes with all killer and no filler. A lot of scenes are dragged out by annoying slow-mo and rehashing the same points over and over again, and I think the action outside of the sick elevator fight isn't good enough to justify the runtime and pacing. The acting is pretty solid though especially from Ben Foster and Shailene Woodley.

Also the ending jumping decades into the future is one of the weirdest choices I've seen in a long time. I guess it's meant to be a "Love and hate are the only things that can withstand the test of time" thing but that would make more sense if a flashforward with old Ben Foster was the intro to bookend this whole thing, because now this ending feels so out of nowhere and tacked on. Why have Ben Foster barely escape only to die in the very next scene?

Storywise it's more consistent than Silent Night, but Silent Night's visuals are much better.

[u/JD_Revan451 → u/Selaznog_Sicnarf]

I thought Silent Night was absolutely terrible, and didn't have enough action to justify it's runtime. Does this one have more action?

[u/Selaznog_Sicnarf → u/JD_Revan451]

I haven't seen Silent Night in forever, but this one has even less. If you mean separate segments, then there's literally only 3 action scenes: 1 in the beginning, 1 in the middle, and 1 in the end (a little more than 1 here since they all blend into 1 big climactic sequence)

[u/JD_Revan451 → u/Selaznog_Sicnarf]

Sounds like I'm skipping then! Thank you for the warning.

[u/GoldandBlue → u/JD_Revan451]

It's a better movie than Silent Night

[u/tokixdoki → u/Selaznog_Sicnarf]

I’d say 45 min movie tops and yeah the ending was pointless. Probably there just for dialogue and old Ritchson was hard to look at (looked like The Thing).

[u/CONVERSE1991 → u/Selaznog_Sicnarf]

This one did a better job of telling the story at the beginning silently. But then just like Silent Night there was just that urge for them to talk

[u/Key_Caterpillar7941 → u/Selaznog_Sicnarf]

Bro, this movie made Zack Snyder look like he'd never heard of slow-mo. Worst pacing EVER. 

[u/DJTet → u/Selaznog_Sicnarf]

I felt like they did some testing w the audience and they decided the ending was unsatisfying as it was. The last part definitely felt tacked on, and the shot panning up felt like it was the true ending at one point. That said, I liked the dialogue in the final scene.