Samaritan

Samaritan

Thirteen year old Sam Cleary suspects that his mysteriously reclusive neighbor Mr. Smith is actually the legendary vigilante Samaritan, who was reported dead 20 years ago. With crime on the rise and the city on the brink of chaos, Sam makes it his mission to coax his neighbor out of hiding to save the city from ruin.

  • Released:
  • Runtime: 120 minutes
  • Genre: Action, Fantasy, Thrillers
  • Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Javon Walton, Pilou Asbæk, Dascha Polanco, Moisés Arias, Martin Starr, Jared Odrick, Michael Aaron Milligan, Natacha Karam, Shariff Earp, Brice Anthony Heller, Nicholas Logan, Julie Haught, Sophia Tatum, Sophia Tatum, Henry G. Sanders, Abraham Clinkscales, Shameik Moore, Roger Payano, Frederick Williams, Dwayne Alistair Thomas, Kevin Mikal Curry
  • Director: Julius Avery
 Comments
  • kathrynnsimon - 12 November 2023
    Deserves better rating
    Society troubled with unemployment and poverty made a ground for corruption and violence.

    Aged superhero acted by brilliant Sylvester Stallone unwillingly is provoked to help save the kid which is also professionaly acted.

    I like Stallone acting and this is one of his best performance right to the side of Rocky. Morale and guidance of his character are very good and accurate.

    There is plethora of action sequences, they're not over exaturated like in MCU movies. No shiny wardrobe and heroes flying like a bees around. Stallone plays gritty hero and this role suit him perfectly. This was enjoyable watch.

    CGI used to create younger Stallone was too generic, could be done better, it's on the PS3 level.

    Would be really nice to have prequel to learn more about Samaritan and Nemesis, where they come from and what they stood for?

    I liked perspective there's no good and evil in exclusive form and that behavior and personalities are intervined, so the main character was made that way which was refreshing premise. Very good.

    In half of the movie had to depart younger daughter from watching since she was overimpressed with violent acts, loudness and destruction. But for rest of us, action was just right.

    Movie have good morale side with emotional characterisation which is relevant too.

    Generally deserves a few more stars overall.

    Excellent watch!
  • The-Sarkologist - 16 July 2023
    Ho Hum
    I really don't know why I end up watching some of these films because, well, they don't end up being all that great. This is particularly the case with films like this one which is sort of a superhero film, but in another sense it is just another action film that happens to have some reference to some particularly strong people. The other thing is that the whole idea is really nothing new. Well, okay the concept, and the twist, is, but the fact that the film has been set in a city that is basically on the verge of collapse is another story.

    So, the movie is set a number of years after these two superheros - Nemesis and Samaritan - had a massive fight in a power plant and Nemesis was killed. Samaritan however vanished, and nothing has been heard from them ever since. However, there are some people that are investigating whether they are still alive. One of them is a young boy.

    As I mentioned, the city is pretty much on the verge of collapse due to crime, and of course the boy ends up getting caught up with some rather nasty individuals. Actually, he starts off with a friend who he helps steal copper wire from buildings, but another gang of rather nasty kids end up recruiting him. Through this he meets up with the main bad guy who basically wants to resurrect Nemesis and overthrow the powers that be.

    I guess the thing with this film is that it explores the concept of the hero and the villain, and then makes us question who the villain actually is. For instance, the idea of the police keeping society safe is a misnomer because they really only exist to keep the powers that be in power, and a peaceful society is only a side product of this. There is also the idea that the poor are kept poor for a similar reason, and that Nemesis was not so much a villain, but a Robin Hood figure who was actually standing up for the dispossessed.

    One thing that struck me is that a lot of crime comes about due to boredom, and lack of money also leads to boredom, especially when one needs money to actually be able to do things. This is in many cases the reason that you have this idea of kids wandering the streets looking for something to do, and when there is nothing to do, they end up committing crimes. Of course, things end up compounding when you throw in drugs and alcohol, but the thing is that while simple things can be done to solve this, in the end the lack of political will prevents it.

    Yeah, the film itself was okay, but as I mentioned, while there are some interesting concepts that come out of it, I have to admit that it wasn't one that really blew me away.
  • davidcshannon - 27 February 2023
    Decent Now, Would've Loved it as a Kid
    My wife and I enjoyed this movie watching in our 30's, although it wasn't amazing. However, it surely would have been amazing were I thirteen years old, like the star.

    Stallone was good, although not everyone was. The general plot and setting were well-conceived. Just some of the details of the execution were a little lackluster.

    The "twist" was the only logical conclusion by the time the intro was over, but I might not have seen that coming as a kid. Still, it didn't ruin the movie knowing things the characters didn't.

    There's definitely some violence and swearing, so don't show it to your kids if they're too young or too sensitive. I was watching Terminator and Predator movies when I was five, so if that's your kid, this should be a hit.
  • IWasKnownAsThe1SentenceReviewer - 29 November 2022
    Started quite okay but was quickly very disappointing
    Started quite okay but was quickly very disappointing: I thought it could make for a good, slightly dark teen superhero movie but it is filled with clichés (the mother and the child looking out the window instead of hiding from the bad guys, the bad guy almost looking up the stairs where the kid is hiding holding his breath, the good guy almost getting on the bus - you know he is not gonna, just skip the station drama).

    The interesting bit was how the movie turned out much more violent the second we learn more of Joe's past.

    Oh and Pilou Asbæk is not the guy from The Shape of Water (2017)...
  • ramsetsmi - 29 October 2022
    Very basically, a good movie.
    In many reviews I see, 'It had heart, Stallone was good, but....' People, heart + Sylvester Stallone is by far, f enough. The kid shadow boxing, the misguided hero worship of the main antagonist etc, good enough. There was maybe one bad edit at 1:14:22: the kid and his maniacal, exasperated laugh, there was obviously more to it, but cut away 😑. The kid has chops and I hope he gets more opportunities to show it. Lil dude is an athlete as well.

    Heart is the biggest thing missing in current American pop culture, be silent and enjoy the judgement of a dude who had $106 to his name one year, and won an academy award the next lol. 106 doll hairs in 1976 was worth a lot more than in 2022, but thank the cinema gods that cream rose to the top in the year of the Dragon when "Rocky" was released. Not all old man millionaires were born millionaires.
  • juanquaglia - 12 October 2022
    Entertaining
    It's an entertaining film, but in this day and age it seems a bit out of date. It reminds me of superhero movies from the 90s or early 2000's. In many parts it seems too generic and cliché.

    Stallone's performance is good. But one massive problem is that the film relies too much on a child actor, something that is always difficult to pull off.

    A detail that took me completely out of the film was the superhero suits. We all know that in this genre the suits are fundamental. But here they were so goofy that they seemed more like the kind of suits you would find in a parody, not a serious superhero film. It didn't help that the hero and villain suits were almost identical. The characters backstory was also very goofy and generic, which didn't match the seriousness in the rest of the film.

    In sum, I would recommend Samaritan only if you are a big superhero fan who doesn't miss any superhero film, or you don't mind watching something super generic to pass the time. Otherwise, you can skip it safely.