STORYLINE: 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.  (IMDb)

     Within every genre there are three basic tears, that the films fall into.  There is the fantastic, the mediocre, and the bad.  1974’s The Godfather part II, which is the greatest gangster film (yes I am calling this a gangster film because the mob is essentially organized gangsters) of all time.  I would classify Road to Perdition (2002), as a mediocre entry into the genre. In what maybe a disagreeable statement, I classify Martin Scorsese’s 2019 The Irishman as an example of a bad gangster film.  This rainy weekend I made my way to my favorite movie theater to see a new gangster movie, titled Motor City.

    In a genre filled with stand out titles, that reach back to close to the birth of cinema, how does a gangster film attempt to elevate itself?  Motor City turns itself, essentially, into a silent film with about twelve lines of dialogue, sparsely used throughout the movie.  A soundtrack consisting of fast paced orchestral score, and modern music, combined with standard ambient noises of an action film, fills the remainder of the audio.  All reminiscent of a silent film.  This makes for a unique attempt to elevate Motor City, beyond mediocrity.

    The motion picture is filled with flashy action sequences, that surround a pretty basic plot of jealousy and revenge.  All can be found often in gangster flicks. 

    The gimmick of making Motor City, in the style of a silent movie seems to both hurt and help, the feature.  It hurts because it forces the story to never really develop beyond a basic tale of jealousy and revenge.  The flip side is, this leads to the action sequences being the kind that ate elaborate and over the top.  They are well done.  Motor City never gets elevated out of the mediocre film territory, into the excellent. It is the kind of movie I have fun as I watch, will more then likely only watch once, and forget about by the time the new year rolls around.

   In the end Motor City is a mediocre, one hit wonder watch.

     Until next time, I will see you at the movies!