User reviews

Is this the best superhero movie ever made, hell no, is it the worst movie ever made, not by a long shot.

Stallone plays to his strengths here

• no long bits of dialogue for him to chew over, check
• some good action scenes, check
• vulnerable young kid for him to save, check

-some dodgy CGI, check

• twist in the end you didn't see coming, unless you are that person at work who sees every twist before they even start watching it, check
• actor who makes you say to your family, "who is that guy?, what else was he in?" Check
• laughter track, when you realise it was the annoying kid from Hannah Montana, and the only way he has grown in 15 years is the addition of multi coloured cornrows, check
• reasonably good supporting cast, especially the main bad guy, and then when you realise who it is, and what he was in, makes you hate "the dans" for ruining the end of game of thrones, because that's how Euron Greyjoy should have been

Joking aside, it's a good movie and you won't want the 2 hours back as wasted time, I'd be a happy man if Stallone kept churning out films like this till he enters the pearly gates, yes he's old, but would I want to pick a fight with him god no.

Well done Stallone sir, as it says in this movie "I'm a fan"

Didn't have high expectations, but this was a pretty good movie. The story, with Stallone as a retired super hero living anonymously in a dystopian near future, allows him to play his own age while still being a tough guy in a credible way. The idea works well for him and he is perfect for the part. The kid, who the story sort of revolves around, is also good, and I expect to see a lot more of Danish actor Asbaek (from Bergen and Game of Thrones) who is excellent as an almost sympathetic bad guy. Thankfully the director avoids the one thing I find so annoying about these kinds of movies - endless fight scenes.

Yeah, he played Judge Dredd and Demolition Man. He was in Guardians of the Galaxy and Rambo is a Bonafede hero, but Samaritan makes me feel like I wanted to see the Italian Stallion (not a bad superhero name at all) as Batman or Captain America, and I know what you're thinking but still, something like that, not necessarily that.

I give Stallone credit for being able to be a selfless actor at times. He knows he's old and he does not mind playing the role of an aging action hero, which he did here so perfectly.

I don't see it as a blockbuster that should have come out in theatres. The fact that the movie revolves around Samaritan's relationship with a 13-year-old boy felt like he was trying to outdo big Arnold's lackluster, Last Action Hero, and it's even more predictable than a Rocky movie without the deep character dive that makes that worth wild Still, it triggered the child in me that remembers when Stallone made movies that might as well made him a superhero and the adult that consumed so many superhero movies that I just want to see the man suit up, for real.

Many of the movies I have enjoyed over the recent years are ones where a good guy is able to put the bad guys in their place. Such was "Taken" with Neeson, the series "Reacher" with Richeson. Here we have Stallone playing a guy who tries to be invisible, but is forced to spring into action when he sees wrong.

The back story involves a pair of brothers, twins, one becomes Samaritan, who fights for good, the other becomes his rival, Nemesis. Many years ago in a giant fire it was believed that both of them perished. In Granite City (not the one in Illinois) a young boy keeps his hopes up that somehow Samaritan survived and lives among them.

This is a better role for Stallone than most of his post-Rocky roles. It is a good mix of fantasy and reality. We know that some of the "super" traits he demonstrates is fictional but fit well in the overall story line. The story is good, the action is appropriate, there is a twist of sorts near the end that requires we re-think everything we saw. But there also is lots of violence and language that pushes the boundaries of the is PG-13 rating. I would not want my under-17 children to watch it.

My wife and I watched it on Amazon streaming. We found it to be worthwhile entertainment.

IN A NUTSHELL: A young boy learns that a superhero who was thought to have gone missing after an epic battle twenty years ago may, in fact, still be alive.

The movie was directed by Julius Avery, written by Bragi F. Schut, and stars Sylvester Stallone.

THINGS I LIKED: Who doesn't love Sylvester Stallone? I love the idea of him as an aging superhero. He does a great job and looks fantastic. What an epic career he's had.

Javon "Wanna" Walton stars as the young boy who pulls Samaritan out of "retirement". Don't let his innocent face fool you; in real life, he is a fierce, five-time Georgia State Boxing Champion and four-time USA Boxing South East Regional Champion. He's the youngest athlete to represent the brand Under Armour!

There is a sweet chemistry between Stallone and Walton.

The opening credits look and feel like a comic book, superhero movie. Well done.

I got a kick out of reading the boy's list of people he thought might be Samaritan. One of the notes he wrote said, "Pizza delivery guy - ran really fast." ha ha There's a tasty twist that adds surprising depth.

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE: "Take back what is yours" by stealing from others? That's what's wrong with society today. People think they're entitled to what others have worked very hard for with no thought of how their actions affect others. Of course, that's the mantra of the bad guys in this movie, but I'm seeing this attitude more and more in everyday life.

There are plenty of action sequences, although none of them are very memorable.

Some of the CGI isn't very good.

It's not entirely clear what Samaritan's or his brother's superpowers are.

Does anyone want an origin story?

TIPS FOR PARENTS: Profanity spoken by adults and kids, including an F-bomb Kids steal We see a shirtless man from the back with scars all over him Bullying A bad guy encourages others to loot and commit violent acts Violence Destruction

THEMES: Physical and emotional scars Being relevant Helping the innocent Service to others Aging Fear and courage Change Reputation

Really have no clue to the thinking behind movies like this, it's like watching a really bad live action cartoon, the awful clunky editing gives the impression that it was a last minute decision not to make it a mini-series but a TV movie instead.

At 76 years old Stallone does as good a job as actors half his age, some of the physical stunts and fight scenes are surprisingly quite good but the entire movie was let down by childish writing and an overall silly story together with painfully amateurish acting from nearly all the supporting cast, the flip flop personality of characters within each scene made it a confusing watch.

On the whole it could have been good, had the story not been concocted by the person that wrote the lego ninjago animated series.

It honestly reminded me of movies I watched in the late 90s, and no that's not a compliment.

I give this a generous 5 stars for Stallone and a few really good stunts, the rest of the cast along with the story gets a big fat 0.

Like most movies based on a comic book this movie was really awful. It was particularly bad because it took itself too seriously, there was absolutely no humor and I'm saying that as a fan of Stallone. He just couldn't do anything to save this movie.

Everything about this film reeked of inferiority. Bad direction, bad cinematography, bad edition, and a terrible script. How did this turkey get made? This film is so emblematic of Hollywood's cultural bankruptcy.

Stallone was good, as was the nemesis character. The kid was annoying, the Tom was annoying, the bad guys were baying annoying. There was no entertainment value here.

The scenes at the end were so ridiculous, so comic book, so stupid, and so adolescent.

There was just absolutely no redeeming value in this film, save your time, watch something worthwhile.

I have no idea of the origins of the characters in the film, but being a Stallone fan I had to give it a watch. A great and stylish beginning leads to a decent and well paced story, with good supporting acting backing up Stallone and his usual grunty and menacing style (nothing wrong with that if you are a fan). The storyline is predictable of course, at least to a point, but that doesn't make it boring to watch, with some nice touches here and there and a few moral lessons thrown in for good measure. There are some good set pieces too, and a good ending. Overall then, worth a watch if you are a fan of sci-fi/superhero/anti-hero films and don't mind Slys "acting".

You know this was so close to being a good movie.

It needed more Rambo level violence, basically all the action scenes lacked a punch, I don't think I seen one person get cut. Stallones character was bottling up so much rage so to just resort to mainly pushing people was a bit of a letdown.

My main issue was with the bad guy though, I had no idea what his plan was, or why he was motivated to do it.

I'd pretty much given up on him as soon as regular people on the street start clapping him and following him into some kind of cult, who wrote that nonsense.

Anyway I'll end on the positives, it was a good idea for a movie and Stallone was great as a haunted has been hero.

Samaritan starts off with a really cool stylized opening scene that got me excited. The first act is mildly entertaining. You can feel the streaming-level quality but it's still enjoyable in one-time viewing kind of way.

Then the second act starts to meander and lose steam. I start to notice the bad acting, the inconsistencies in logic, the idiotic character decisions, and some really stupid parts that made me roll my eyes. The third act doubles down on all of this.

I went from "this is pretty decent" to "get this movie out of here." It also didn't help that I found it fully predictable. Maybe I watch too many movies but nothing surprised me.

But the thing that annoyed me the most is the decision to make this PG-13. All of the action scenes are screaming for an unrestricted R-rating. I saw a similar thing with Netflix's The Gray Man. It's a much better movie but should have definitely been rated R.

The difference is, The Gray Man did a great job of hiding the restrictions on violence, strategically with camera angles and edits. Samaritan doesn't try to hide it at all. There are scenes of brutal violence with zero blood. A throat is slit... with ZERO blood. It makes the movie feel amateur.

We keep seeing examples like this, like Morbius, a vampire movie without blood. I don't know when they're going to learn that this is a terrible strategy. PG-13 supposedly sells more tickets, but a good rated R movie is going to be more successful than a bad PG-13 movie.

But... this is a streaming movie with, to my knowledge, no theatrical showings. Tickets aren't sold. So why in the world would you limit yourself? Same with The Gray Man (limited theatrical release). I'll never understand it. Stop being cowards and go all out. (1 viewing, 8/28/2022)

I love Stallone. He's my hero really. And I love how he puts his heart and soul into any movie he commits to. The Samaritin is a decent movie, but with no hero/villian devopment at all it's hard to make the mental jump. There just isn't enough laid down in the back story for you to really care about any of the characters. It's not a bad movie idea, and plays into an older Stallone pretty well, but its just not excuted well at all.

Everything seemed rushed and unppaslable. The kid was okay, looked a bit like a young river Phenoix but without the acting chops.

The Villian was a Bane from "The dark Knight rises" wannabe.. This is an entertaining and decent film, with Sly giving great one line advice and good action scenes. But ultimately, it's nothing new and a bit awkward.

6 out of ten.

......he's really the only part of the movie that kept me going to the half way mark. I couldn't risk losing anymore IQ points watching the rest.

It's not an atrocious movie, it's just made for a younger audience.

It's cliched, simple and been done before (narration wise).

The dumbed down sewage spilling on to our screens from Hollywood is never ending.

Finding a two hour worthy memorable movie is becoming more and more elusive.

If you're 13 and have less discernment than a hungry labrador you'll mark this in the upper quartile.

Stallone will be remembered for many movies, this will certainly not be one of them.

Fun.

Pop some corn and kick back and turn off the critic and enjoy. It's a comic book type story.

And it's got stallone. When did you think THIS would ever happen again?

Six hundred characters? That's got to be at LEAST 10 times what the movie has. Am i going to get PAID by the character? Oh wait! That's right! I'm not getting paid at ALL, am i?

Well...i think this 600 character thing is a new requirement...and i was wondering why noone else had already written a review...maybe there's a kickback so that people won't trash the movie so that the producers can actually make a few bucks. I hope you're catching on that at THIS point i don't CARE if you print this or not...like YOU'RE doing ME a favor? I don't think so...hey! How do ya like them Mets? Are they anywhere in the standings this year? Who can, or even better yet, would WANT to write a review with 600 characters on a movie like this?

Samaritan starring Sylvester Stallone is a movie about an aging superhero who has stepped away from his crime fighting days and is living low-key as a commoner. That's a somewhat interesting premise that could have been explored so much more instead of what ended up being presented on screen, which turned out to be the most basic, uninteresting, uninspired and lazily written version of it imaginable.

The whole lore behind the movie about Samaritan and Nemesis is some of the goofiest and silliest you would see for a movie that tries so hard to convince you of how seriously we should all be taking it. And even the names Samaritan and Nemesis... Like are they even trying at this point? There was one somewhat interesting plot twist in the third act but that in no way helps this movie which was already dead by the time it reaches its third act. And all in all, there isn't much positively to say about this movie. Even the acting was sub-par at best (Stallone) to straight up amateur hour (the kid, the villain, his girlfriend, his lackeys...) for the most of it. But if you were to force me to pick one thing refreshing about this movie, I'd maybe say the camerawork and coloring that presents a somewhat noticeably cold take on a struggling city. That, and maybe Sylvester Stallone, but only because I love Sylvester Stallone.

Overall, I appreciate what this movie could have been, but that's still not enough to save Samaritan from its own writing that makes the whole thing feel underwhelmingly silly.

In the oversaturated arena of superhero films, that last thing you want to see is a bland story riddled with plot and technical issues. Aside from Sly's amazing presence, even he couldn't save the cliched and underwhelming screenplay. Aside from one decent twist, the rest of the story was generic and predictable, and lacked that "superhero intensity" in its writing. There wasn't enough substance in the story to merit the 102 min runtime, and the slow pacing didn't help much either. The directing wasn't any better with the long dragged out scenes, and the constant 360-degree spins everyone did when they got punched. I mean what's up with that nonsense anyway, was the action choreographer a gymnast? It's an ok one-time watch, especially if you're a Sly fan.

Sad. Chaotic. Predictable. Sly Stallone in the lead role as the super-guy with unexplained powers of strength. No plot but many wanna-be-special effects.

And some very melodramatic, angry faced, disposable bad guys doing bad things and making it personal for Sly.

Somewhere along the way there is a clueless mom who wishes her son would go down the right path.

And sprinkled all along are mouth-y blabbering impetuous teenagers, talking big and acting poorly.

It was rated number one and free with Amazon prime. And now I want my time and my money back.

Just. Sad. My IQ dipped just watching this one.

JDMc.

I was actually surprised how much I enjoyed this movie. I have never been a huge Sylvester Stallone fan, but I like the raw, grittiness of this character. Reminded me of his Rocky days. I also find myself liking the movies he's been doing lately. They typically have a message and things get blown up and bad guy smashed to pieces. LOL! So, I guess I'm more of a fan than I thought, which is another surprise. This movie is violent but but enough to where you can not watch with your whole family. It is your typical good vs evil but with a small predictable twist. 'Wanna' did a great job and I enjoyed his acting and role in this movie too.

It was no block buster, as it lacked a bit in plot, but for what it was aiming for, solid effort all around.

Didn't see the little twist at the end coming but wasn't really looking for one. Which was also addressed superbly with his response to the kid.

It could've been brightened up a bit, and what the fk was up with the audio???? I was constantly turning it up by 10 to 40 above what I normally need to have my TV on to hear dialog, only to have some tremendously loud scene blast the audio the next second. Then when he gets hit by the car, dialog audio was fine, tv was on 25 ish, only for the car crash to be enough to rattle the pictures on the wall.

Stalone was great, always is. The kid, Javon 'Wanna' Walton, did a great job acting, but his caracter is so obnoxious and self centered. Steals from his worshipped hero. Who wrote this? Are all the script writer's kid like this or something. Don't they have any good examples of kids? I got tired of him after 20 minutes. Is this the only example that they could come up with? This script has been played thousands of times, exactly like this. Zero innovation. Get new script writers Mr. Stalone, please.

About the bad guys, so unrealistic. Same old bad guys. Walks into a police station, tells them what he's going to do, walks into the evidence room, after blowing up the front, gets what he wants, no problem.

As always, all of Mr. Stalone's movies have potential. Most of them are great, some are good, and a few are, watchable during a five day snow blizzard. This one, watchable while making popcorn for the next movie.

Thank you for your time.