Samaritan

Samaritan will be released on Amazon Prime this Friday, August 26th, 2022. The film currently has a 41% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but our film critic M.N. ...

Considering the film’s delay before its release, it would take positive word of mouth and replays on the streaming giant to garner that kind of consideration. Or, a third film could angle a prequel, showing the real showdown of the twin brother epic battle. This would follow the Nolan Batman plot logic over three films. So does Sam, who I would hope would come back to be his Robin. (Imagine having so much money that you can buy the legendary MGM studio out of pocket?). Miller says the film is, “

And though he has appeared in a few superhero movies in recent years, Stallone hasn't led a comic book adaptation since the 1995 adaptation of Judge Dredd. That ...

Starr, who got his break as Bill Haverchuck on the [Freaks and Geeks cast](https://www.cinemablend.com/television/2562464/what-the-freaks-and-geeks-cast-is-doing-now) back in 1999, has continued to find success on the small screen, with appearances on Party Down, Drunk History, and Silicon Valley, to name only a few. [treacherous Euron Greyjoy](https://www.cinemablend.com/television/2471795/why-one-game-of-thrones-actor-specifically-pushed-to-have-character-die-offscreen) on the [Game of Thrones cast](https://www.cinemablend.com/television/2490856/game-of-thrones-what-are-the-cast-members-doing-now) in the HBO fantasy series’ final few seasons, quickly establishing himself as one of the show’s most evil villains. Though she doesn’t have quite as many credits to her name as other members of the Samaritan cast, Tatum has been part of some major projects in recent years. And don’t forget to check out our guide to all the other When he's not writing about movies or television, Philip can be found being chased by his three kids, telling his dogs to stop yelling at the mailman, or yelling about professional wrestling to his wife. His film credits include everything from voice roles in the likes of Despicable Me 2, Astro Boy, and The Secret World of Arrietty to live-action films including Ender's Game, The King of Staten Island, The Stanford Prison Experiment, Pitch Perfect 3, and Blast Beat. Starting things off is Sylvester Stallone himself, who takes on the role of a former superhero who reluctantly gets back in the crime-fighting game after an encounter with a young boy in trouble in Samaritan. During that same stretch of time, Polanco has landed roles in movies like The Cobbler, The Irishman, In the Heights, and most recently, DC League of Super-Pets, in which she voiced Green Lantern. Though this is first time playing a traditional superhero since taking on the titular role in 1995's Judge Dredd, Stallone has made appearances in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. This includes major roles on The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, Russian Doll, and When They See Us, to name a few. And though he has appeared in a few superhero movies in recent years, Stallone hasn't led a comic book adaptation since the 1995 adaptation of Judge Dredd. That all changes with Samaritan, Julias Avery's Amazon original movie, which sees Stallone take on the role of a retired masked vigilante who reluctantly comes out of the shadows.

At 76, Sylvester Stallone is still making movies. And after spending time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Extended Universe, Stallone is finally ...

Again, there's potential here for a populist street leader to rally the population with a vicious Robin Hood routine that adds a mess of gray to what others might assume is a black and white story. So if the lore is thin, and the story never quite reaches its potential, "Samaritan" has to lean more on its characters and action. One of the great things about having a retired superhero is the story can flash back to a painful past of mistakes and things they wish they'd done differently. If Ben Affleck had been able to make his solo Batman movie in the flavor of Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns," he might have developed a match for "Logan." Schut penned the script, and his other film credits include a 2011 Nicholas Cage film, "Season of the Witch." Nemesis brought a special hammer to the fight that he forged himself and poured all his hatred into.

Samaritan debuts on Prime Video on Aug. 26 on Prime Video. Caught between the worlds of superhero movie and anti-superhero movie, the Sylvester Stallone-led ...

You may have figured it out just by reading the premise, which isn’t a problem in and of itself, but there’s nothing more to it than the matter of what Joe may or may not have done in the past. [Defendor](https://www.ign.com/articles/2010/04/15/defendor-dvd-review), [Super](https://www.ign.com/articles/2011/04/01/super-review), or [Kick-Ass](https://www.ign.com/articles/2010/03/12/kick-ass-review-3)), but it has no whimsy about itself, no perspective on the genre, and nothing to say about the moral dimensions it constantly harps on in its dialogue. In the process, this identity is the only question that ends up being relevant to young Sam, despite the bare-bones presence of deeper drama underscoring his search. Samaritan and Nemesis, who briefly appear in flashbacks, are broad stand-ins for childlike notions of good and evil, but the stray lines of dialogue hinting at further complexity may as well be billboard advertisements reading: “Depth: coming soon.” In Samaritan, the superhero-as-police analog isn’t so much a deconstruction of the Avengers, and other protectors of status quo, as it is an excuse to manufacture opposing sides for mind-numbingly staged action scenes lacking any sense of “oomph” (let alone any sense of comprehensibility). The music, by Jed Kurzel and Kevin Kiner, builds commendably in its intensity, but nothing on-screen ever rises to match it. As Sam, Walton is a sprightly delight, but neither his character nor Stallone’s talks with anything but doublespeak about Samaritan, Nemesis, death, and secret identities, all meant to obscure something that happens late into the third act, but seems imminently obvious from the animated opening sequence to anyone who’s ever seen a movie. Others, like local gangster Cyrus (Pilou Asbæk), with his Nemesis tattoos, believe Samaritan to have been a protector of the rich and powerful, while Nemesis was a fighter for the people. However, Joe’s involvement in the story is almost incidental, limited to other characters like Sam and Cyrus egging him on in the hopes that he’ll reveal his identity. Schut) is filled with textures and perspectives it has no idea how to wield, mashing them into a hodgepodge of non-ideas borrowed from other, better movies, both in the superhero genre and in pop culture at large. To make matters even stranger, very little of this plot has anything to do with Stallone’s character, a garbage man named Joe Smith, whose spare time is spent recovering and repairing analog relics like old radios. But his societal revolt has about as much grounding in reality as [Kendall Jenner’s Pepsi commercial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwvAgDCOdU4&ab_channel=YashYadav). A few decades prior, Granite City (a rough-and-tumble Atlanta) was plunged into chaos thanks to a pair of invincible twins in nondescript metallic costumes.

Samaritan is now out on Prime Video and Sylvester Stallone's superhero movie has a big twist about Nemesis, so let's delve into it.

Before Nemesis slinks off into the night and a life of obscurity again, he watches as Sam is interviewed on live TV after the dramatic events. But the real truth is good and bad live in everybody's heart and it's going to be up to you to make the right choice," he tells Sam. Samaritan had the upper hand, but refused to kill Nemesis with the hammer. Attempting to do just that, Nemesis lured Samaritan into a trap by threatening the lives of people in Granite City at the local power station. 25 years later, Cyrus finds this hammer after breaking into the police evidence lock-up and decides to take on the mantle of Nemesis. Samaritan breaks into Cyrus's warehouse, but the villain gets the upper hand by using the hammer. I'm the bad guy." Nemesis created a hammer fuelled with his own hatred for Samaritan that became the only weapon that could defeat him. I'm not the good guy. In the movie's title sequence, we're told that Samaritan and Nemesis were twin brothers who ended up becoming sworn enemies. "If it was only bad people doing bad things, it'd be easy to get rid of them. But is Joe who Sam thinks he is?

Aug. 26 (UPI) -- Sylvester Stallone's next superhero film Samaritan will premiere on Amazon Prime Video, the final season of See will begin streaming on ...

The show's second episode will premiere on Sunday, following an Episode 1 which introduced fans to the ancestors of House Targaryen. [hosting trio](https://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/Music/2022/08/18/MTV-VMAs-hosts-LL-Cool-J-Nicki-Minaj-Jack-Harlow/7951660836292/) of LL Cool J, Nicki Minaj and Jack Harlow. A renewed battle for the Iron Throne has begun, with an uncle and niece fighting over who will take control of Westeros. It was [recently announced](https://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/Music/2022/08/25/Eminem-Snoop-Dogg-perform-MTV-VMAs/1621661443298/) that this will include Eminem and Snoop Dogg, who will both take to the stage to perform their new single "From the D 2 the LBC." The show will focus on Ingrid's efforts to battle misogyny within her male-dominated workplace, while also looking to cultivate relationships in her personal life. The show stars the voice of Aubrey Plaza, along with Danny DeVito and his daughter, Lucy DeVito, rounding out the family. In [recent interviews](https://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/Movies/2022/08/22/Superhero-Stallone-Samaritan-clip-interview/8341661189789/), Stallone said that the film is "a classical format about how do you take back what is yours that you built?" The trip will involve a number of misadventures, though, including encounters with nudists, mountain lions and BASE jumping. [The film](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mmq_NVwLN_g) follows a stay-at-home dad (Hart), who ends up embarking on a [weekend away](https://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/Movies/2022/07/26/Me-Time-trailer-Kevin-Hart-Mark-Wahlberg-Netflix/4671658845964/) with an old friend in order to get some time away. [third and final season](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCcB33X_xCY) of See, which is coming to Apple TV+ on Friday. Beyond the two lead characters, Me Time also stars Regina Hall and Jimmy O. [The film](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBbxPysyxeo) follows a young boy in his quest to prove that a famous superhero, who was thought to have disappeared 25 years ago, is still alive.

There are so many holes in Samaritan's screenplay that the movie needs to move faster than it does if it is to outrun them.

It even has a twist that you should be able to predict during the opening credits, and the film doesn’t even do anything useful with that potentially interesting development. His evil is so over-the-top he feels ported over from “ [Robocop 2](/reviews/robocop-2-1990).” The way Sam feels about Samaritan is the way Cyrus feels about Nemesis, so much so that he wants to emulate him and destroy Granite City. Then, of course, there’s the scene in the trailer where Joe gets smashed to bits by a car driven by the folks he just beat up, and his body fixes itself. [Austin Butler](/cast-and-crew/austin-butler)’s Elvis from that [Baz Luhrmann](/cast-and-crew/baz-luhrmann) movie to hop over to Amazon from pay-per-view so he can stroll down the street singing “In the Ghetto.” This place is also crime ridden, with Sam committing petty theft with teenagers who work for the evil Cyrus ( [Pilou Asbæk](/cast-and-crew/pilou-asb%C3%A6k)). The bombastic score by [Kevin Kiner](/cast-and-crew/kevin-kiner) and [Jed Kurzel](/cast-and-crew/jed-kurzel) is just obnoxious and overbearing enough to almost convince you that this overwritten origin story should be taken seriously. Schut](/cast-and-crew/bragi-f-schut)’s screenplay, and to the animators who bring it to life.

Kevin Hart and Mark Wahlberg are old buds reconnecting in "Me Time," Sylvester Stallone is maybe a former superhero in "Samaritan" and Idris Elba is a Djinn ...

In theaters. Meanwhile the Djinn tells her the long version of his origin story, which can feel as long as the movie's title. "Mad Max" mastermind George Miller tells the story of a genie in a bottle in "Three Thousand Years of Longing," starring Tilda Swinton as a narratologist who frees a Djinn (Idris Elba) but is hesitant to make her three wishes. Granite City needs a superhero, and they get one — maybe — in the form of Joe Smith (Sylvester Stallone), an anonymous looking city dweller whom young Sam (Javon Walton) believes may be Samaritan, former protector of the city streets. "Overlord" director Julius Avery doesn't break the mold here, but he tells a grounded story that forgoes capes, tights and most hallmarks of today's superhero extravaganzas. Kevin Hart is a straight-laced dad and Mark Wahlberg is a loose cannon bachelor in "Me Time," a brutally unfunny buddy comedy, which makes no attempt to ever connect to anything resembling reality.

Fresh off new sequels saying "Goodbye, but also not goodbye" to Rocky and Rambo, Sylvester Stallone stars in an aging-superhero movie that seems designed to ...

Is Sam genuinely conflicted between taking up a life of crime and doing the right thing, mirroring the way Granite City’s citizens are divided between Samaritan and Nemesis? On top of the narrative confusion, the tenuous, distant spatial relationship between Sam’s original post and the interior of the hideout makes it seem nearly impossible for anyone to hear him whistling a warning, even if he could. The few moments in Samaritan that do recall more recent superhero movies are still a bit offbeat: Cyrus (Pilou Asbæk), the younger maniac who wants to claim the mantle of Nemesis for himself, sports both a philosophy and a coat that recall the Dark Knight Rises version of Bane. The movie’s superpower is the ability to inspire a litany of distracting questions in almost any scene, no matter how simple. Granite City owes more to the industrial decay of comics movies like The Crow — though it’s equally indebted to local-news scaremongering that depicts any and all cities as cesspools of crime, on the brink of total anarchy. The premise has an appealing directness, laid out in an illustrated prologue: Granite City was once the home of two brothers with superhuman strength and endurance, dubbed Samaritan and (sigh) Nemesis.

Review: Sylvester Stallone finds nuance in superhero deconstruction 'Samaritan'. A bearded man examines a watch up close. Sylvester Stallone in the movie “ ...

[a well-plotted, action-packed throwback to ’80s blockbusters](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2022-05-12/top-gun-maverick-review-tom-cruise) but with better-defined characters, a richer emotional range and some of the best aerial combat sequences ever filmed. (At times the characters are dryly serious; at other times someone will throw in a “Jaws” quote as a wink to the audience.) By the end, “Maneater” has walked right up to the edge of being a fun, silly, “so bad it’s good” time-killer. [Sidney Poitier,](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2022-01-07/remembering-sidney-poitier) who also cast himself as a Civil War veteran leading wagon trains of freed slaves to a new life out west, alongside his wife (Ruby Dee) and a scheming reverend (Harry Belafonte). [institutional and cultural responses to the storm](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-08-11/five-days-at-memorial-review-apple-vera-farmiga-john-ridley), both before and after. The best way to describe the survival thriller “Maneater” is that it’s about two very different people — a grizzled fisherman named Harlan (Trace Adkins) and a vacationer named Jesse (Nicky Whelan) — who have to work together to kill an enormous shark that has eaten some of their loved ones. In between those “you are there” sequences, Russell fills in some of the details of his subject’s life, from his start as a pioneer of antivirus software to his end as a radical libertarian, surrounded by drugs, guns and chaos. It’s hard to separate the facts from the paranoid conspiracy theories when it comes to McAfee, which can make “Running With the Devil” feel a little scattered — like reading a bunch of fevered diary entries. And while McAfee was on the lam — as one of the most famous criminals in the world — multiple reporters started following him, chasing a strange story barreling toward a dark end. [John McAfee](https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-06-25/widow-antivirus-pioneer-john-mcafee-was-not-suicidal) was one of those mega-wealthy folks convinced he knew best how the world should work — and that unless the people in charge let him run things, he was under no obligation to follow their rules. The premise of “Samaritan” is the stuff of cartoons, but the actors makes the stakes feel real. [“The Boys”](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2020-09-03/amazon-the-boys-season-2-karl-urban-billy-butcher) and “Invincible” have stolen some of the movie’s thunder by doing their own deconstructing and reconstructing of caped-crusader mythology. [Sylvester Stallone](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/la-en-sylvester-stallone-20160211-story.html) plays Joe Smith, a garbageman in Granite City, a blighted, crime-ridden metropolis still reeling from the loss of its champion, Samaritan, in a battle to the death with his villainous brother, Nemesis.

An animated, comic-book-inspired opening turns out to be the best part of "Samaritan," a very by-the-numbers superhero tale that casts Sylvester Stallone as ...

About all that's left is the modest kick of seeing Stallone in this sort of setting, a novelty that only goes so far. ["Overlord"](https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/09/entertainment/overlord-review) ["Creed" films](https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/20/entertainment/creed-ii-review)

Stallone cannot redeem 'Samaritan's many flaws, but he can still make it worth watching for those willing to look past a generic superhero story.

In the end, Samaritan’s most irredeemable crime is being bland in a market oversaturated by superhero media. Stallone has a knack for playing big brutes with a heart, the kind of character who knows they can easily win a fight, but still prefers to hold their punches and use their heads. And if the surprise is not mandatory to make a story pleasant, Samaritan fails to explain why the twist happens, undercutting all emotional weight it might have had. There are badly-placed exposition scenes to explain the rules of the fictional Granite City, who the major players in the movie are, and how superpowers work in this universe. Promising yet another gritty and dark take on the genre, Samaritan sadly fails to bring anything new to the table, turning an inventive concept into a generic superhero story. While Marvel still dominates the superhero market, every other studio still tries to get a piece of this very profitable cake by constantly releasing movies and series about superpowered people.

Latina actor Dascha Polanco says viewers will relate to the complexity of good versus evil in the new Amazon Prime movie "Samaritan" with Sylvester ...

And I’m proud to being able to have that opportunity,” she said. And the baton was passed on to me. And I’ll pass that on to my kids.” “Within the bad, within the good, you kind of find something that you relate to.” And my parents did their due diligence to bring me here,” she said, referring to her family’s migration from the Dominican Republic to the United States. When you get back up, that’s the hero within us,” she said.