Bad Samaritan

A SMALL-time scam artist (Robert Sheehan) inadvertently stumbles upon a far more dangerous criminal (David Tennant), earning a chance to redeem himself in the catchy if somewhat nonsensically titled Bad Samaritan.

The notion of a well-meaning sinner doing penance for past wrongs may as well extend to producer-turned-director Dean Devlin, who’s evidently using this potboiler to atone for last year’s disastrous Geostorm, delivering a down-and-dirty quickie that’s less ambitious in every sense yet ultimately far more effective as a piece of shamelessly manipulative, armrest-clutching genre entertainment.

Banking heavily on the unconventional, almost-androgynous looks of its blue-eyed, ringlet-haired leading man, Bad Samaritan expects audiences to identify with an opportunistic hustler who uses a Portland restaurant’s valet parking service to break into rich folks’ homes while they dine. Bad Samaritan evokes urban myths about an upper class so entitled that it hunts or enslaves people for its own amusement. It’s all thoroughly unpleasant, but then, that’s what audiences for this kind of movie want from the experience, so consider it a success of sorts.

When it comes to sick thrills, Bad Samaritan is nowhere near as horrible as The Human Centipede, harking back to such early-1990s thrillers as The Silence Of The Lambs, Cape Fear, and The Vanishing .–

But one thing’s for sure: You won’t think of valeting your car the same way again. –