Samaritan

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.

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.

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.

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.