Metacritic-Rezensionen

This is an entertaining B-movie bolstered by performances from a cast that often rises above the predictable material.

Stallone provides just the right amount of world-weary gravitas and deadpan humor to put over the hokey material. And he still has the requisite imposing physicality to make the sight of his character beating up men a quarter of his age fairly convincing.

Those who remember a time when afternoons were spent pumping quarters into Street Fighter II and fantasizing about Sylvester Stallone beating up your bullies, will no doubt feel a surge of nostalgia — and a healthy dose of dopamine — watching Samaritan.

Samaritan is basic enough that it often plays like a video-game film in which someone forgot to add the CGI. But the movie builds to a very good twist, and Stallone, in his way, brings a vibe to it, complete with an ’80s kiss-off line (“Have a blast!”) delivered in a growl so deliberate it practically etches itself into the scenery.

In a movie world crowded with everyone eager to make their own special superhero stand out, this one doesn’t pack much of a punch.

It’s both ironic and fitting that while Samaritan positions itself as fresh territory for the actor, it’s only entertaining once it belatedly refashions itself as a throwback to vintage Stallone fare.

Sylvester Stallone doesn’t seem thrilled to be playing a superhero in Samaritan, a hodgepodge of non-ideas borrowed from better movies.

In a crowded marketplace, new superhero movies need a lot to stand out; despite some solid work from Sylvester Stallone, it’s not really clear what Samaritan is bringing to the table.

It’s a fresh spin that feels awfully stale, a Samaritan less good and more mediocre.

Perhaps the fairest description of Stallone’s performance is that it’s only as one-note as the material, his stern tough-guy muttering and grimacing just about right for a screenplay that feels like it’s been plucked out of a dustbin left untouched since 1995.