When it comes to beating the ever-living-shit out of bad guys, there’s no one who does it better than Reacher star Alan Ritchson, TV’s towering action man with more lean muscle mass than the poultry aisle at Kroger’s. That’s the thrill of watching him on screen: no nonsense, rock ’em, sock ’em brutality, delivered with crunching wallops and zesty haymakers that would give ’80s Arnie a run for his money.
His run on Reacher, the aforementioned Lee Child adaptation about a towering ex-military man who takes on small town criminal conspiracies across the US, made him arguably the biggest action star on the planet—literally and figuratively. Now, TV’s favorite proteinmaxxer brings his brand of avenging mayhem to the big screen. Director Potsy Ponciroli’s Motor City—which had its splashy film festival debut in Venice last August and comes to theaters on July 24—stars Ritchson in a pulpy, ultra-stylish throwback thriller set in ’70s Detroit. He plays a wrongly imprisoned ex-con on what sounds to be a Tarantino-esque revenge mission, replete with gnarly violence. Oh, and this time, he’ll truly let his fists do the talking: early reviews have it that the film boasts little to no dialogue. (Who needs words when you’re kicking ass?)
The first trailer for Motor City released a few days ago, teasing some truly no-holds-barred, adrenalized action sequences, plus Alan Ritchson in a wig that makes him look like prime Kevin Nash, if the tractor-tyre sized biceps weren’t already intimidating enough. “In 1970s Detroit, a working-class romantic is framed by a ruthless gangster after falling for his girlfriend,” reads the official logline shared on the trailer page. “After years in prison, he returns with only one mission: revenge.” Does it look like there’s much in the way of “plot,” or characters that exist as more than B-movie mannequins to suffer Ritchson’s hulking wrath? Not really, but that’s not the point—the point is that, in one trailer scene, he fires a sawed-off shotgun loaded with dimes and a wedding ring, and I’d challenge anyone not to give that a big ’ol “hell yeah.”
Reviews have varied, but there’s certainly consensus in that, if you’re looking for more of Ritchson at his brick shithouse best, you probably won’t leave underwhelmed. And while there might not be much in the way of dialogue, it sounds as though they’ve spared no expense when it comes to the ultra-era-appropriate score, curated by The White Stripes’s Jack White, with tracks like “The Chain” by Fleetwood Mac and David Bowie’s “Cat People.” Some have described it to be more like an extended, experimental music video than your traditional action flick. But one stuffed with ’70s rock bangers? Sign us up.
This article originally appeared in British GQ.