A samaritan with few redeeming qualities
Samaritan (M, 101 mins) Directed by Julius Avery Reviewed by James Croot ★★ 1⁄
2
This time, Sam Cleary (Javon Walton) is convinced he’s found his man. Sure, the 13-year-old Granite City resident thought he’d stumbled across Samaritan before, but all the signs point to garbage man Joe Smith (Sylvester Stallone) actually being the supposedly deceased superhero.
‘‘They told us he and his twin brother Nemesis died in a power plant blast, but I believe he lives – and Joe has impressive strength, is willing to fight for the little guy and has severe burns.’’
However, even local bookstore owner and author of conspiracy thriller Samaritan Lives, Albert Casler (Martin Starr) has grown tired of Sam’s theories. ‘‘First, it was the custodian at your school, then it was the mailman who outran a bulldog. You can’t keep scaring away my customers every time an old man makes a sudden move.’’
Disappointed, but determined to prove he’s right, Sam continues to conduct covert surveillance on his quarry. However, he’s also extremely mindful of his mother’s financial plight.
So while she works long hours at the hospital just to try to keep them in their low-rent apartment, he has been increasingly taking jobs assisting smalltime hoodlums in nefarious activities. When a secondment to help with the heist of lottery tickets from a convenience story goes somewhat pear-shaped, through no fault of Sam’s, he’s rescued from retribution, firstly by mysterious Nemesis disciple Cyrus (Pilou Asbaek) and then Joe.
The latter’s intervention particularly aggrieves the posse, who decide to retaliate by running him over with their car. To their amazement though, Joe emerges virtually unscathed, only exuding steam and with a major craving for mint choc-chip ice cream.
Initially planned for release in cinemas in November 2020, director Julian Avery’s follow-up to his crowdpleasing 2018 action-horror Overlord is a solid, but unspectacular entry in the overstuffed superhero genre.
The effects and stunt sequences are serviceable rather than memorable and the story, adapted by Bragi F Schut (Escape Room) from his 2014 comic, follows a well-worn path, even if it does come up with a clever twist that threatens to lift everything that came before it.
The movies Unbreakable and Finding Forrester in 2000 have been cited as inspirations, but in truth, this feels more like a throwback to the Schwarzeneggerand-a-kid flicks of the early-90s like The Last Action Hero and Terminator 2: Judgement Day, but without the swagger, chutzpah or comedy of that duo.
Indeed, although Stallone manages to emote and even deliver a stirring speech about the nature of good and evil, there’s not much joy in his performance, and Walton (Utopia, Euphoria, The Umbrella Academy) is given few opportunities to really shine.
More troublingly, for a movie that seems at pains to present its protagonists as living in a gritty, dystopian environment that is an allegory for the ills of modern day America, they all seem to come through any sticky situations with no consequences and, in one vital scene, no-one suffers from smoke inhalation.
I’m all for being charitable towards a Stallone action flick (Demolition Man is one of my favourite popcorn movies of the 90s), but with its clunky exposition and tired tropes, Samaritan eventually runs out of redeeming qualities.
Samaritan is now available to stream on Prime Video.