Le Samaritain

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.

Yeah, he played Judge Dredd and Demolition Man. He was in Guardians of the Galaxy and Rambo is a Bonafede hero, but Samaritan makes me feel like I wanted to see the Italian Stallion (not a bad superhero name at all) as Batman or Captain America, and I know what you're thinking but still, something like that, not necessarily that.

I give Stallone credit for being able to be a selfless actor at times. He knows he's old and he does not mind playing the role of an aging action hero, which he did here so perfectly.

I don't see it as a blockbuster that should have come out in theatres. The fact that the movie revolves around Samaritan's relationship with a 13-year-old boy felt like he was trying to outdo big Arnold's lackluster, Last Action Hero, and it's even more predictable than a Rocky movie without the deep character dive that makes that worth wild Still, it triggered the child in me that remembers when Stallone made movies that might as well made him a superhero and the adult that consumed so many superhero movies that I just want to see the man suit up, for real.

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.

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"