Samaritano

I have no idea of the origins of the characters in the film, but being a Stallone fan I had to give it a watch. A great and stylish beginning leads to a decent and well paced story, with good supporting acting backing up Stallone and his usual grunty and menacing style (nothing wrong with that if you are a fan). The storyline is predictable of course, at least to a point, but that doesn't make it boring to watch, with some nice touches here and there and a few moral lessons thrown in for good measure. There are some good set pieces too, and a good ending. Overall then, worth a watch if you are a fan of sci-fi/superhero/anti-hero films and don't mind Slys "acting".

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

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.

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.

Is this the best superhero movie ever made, hell no, is it the worst movie ever made, not by a long shot.

Stallone plays to his strengths here

• no long bits of dialogue for him to chew over, check
• some good action scenes, check
• vulnerable young kid for him to save, check

-some dodgy CGI, check

• twist in the end you didn't see coming, unless you are that person at work who sees every twist before they even start watching it, check
• actor who makes you say to your family, "who is that guy?, what else was he in?" Check
• laughter track, when you realise it was the annoying kid from Hannah Montana, and the only way he has grown in 15 years is the addition of multi coloured cornrows, check
• reasonably good supporting cast, especially the main bad guy, and then when you realise who it is, and what he was in, makes you hate "the dans" for ruining the end of game of thrones, because that's how Euron Greyjoy should have been

Joking aside, it's a good movie and you won't want the 2 hours back as wasted time, I'd be a happy man if Stallone kept churning out films like this till he enters the pearly gates, yes he's old, but would I want to pick a fight with him god no.

Well done Stallone sir, as it says in this movie "I'm a fan"