Being a fan of super hero movies, and especially good ones, when I heard of "Samaritan", I thought I ought to give it a viewing, and I did.
SPOILER: This is NOT about Astro City's Samaritan. Save for the name, it's an all new story and concept - and to me, it plays well.
Basically, 25 years ago, Samaritan and his arch nemesis Nemesis, twin brothers, were battling for their own cause. Both supposedly died - but our protagonist Sam, 13 years old and living in a slum, is a Samaritan fanatic and thinks that his hero survived. Enter his across-the-alley neighbor Joe Smith. Sam is lonely (mom only orphan) and a bit scared of his life, and looks for a hero anywhere.
To make a long story short, Sam has reasons to believe that Joe is Samaritan, still around after 25 years, and he pursues this idea. Simultaneously, Sam starts getting hooked into an adult gang whose leader, Cyrus, idolizes what Nemesis stood for and wants to bring that chaos and anarchy to Granite City, their home,
The story proceeds with Joe seeing what goes on around the city, and getting frustrated; and Sam, being the truly classic Dependent Non-Player Character that he is (think Jimmy Olsen or Rick Jones) lets a clue drop here or there, and trouble ensues.
It proceeds to an exciting super hero climax, and it's done. Joe is a real super hero character; secret identity, personal weakness, and hunted by Cyrus and his gang, SPOILER: Cyrus is too young to be Nemesis and he puts on the mask; but he is NOT Nemesis, still alive after 25 years.
There are some great twists and turns in the story, and while it isn't quite as action packed as a typical super hero movie, it's plenty exciting.
If you choose to give it a watch, let me know what you think, I highly recommend it.
I remain,
Sincerely,
Eric L. Sofer
x<]:o){
The Silver Age Fogey
Replies
There are several movies by that name. This is the one discussed:
Samaritan (2022) - IMDb
It's free on Amazon Prime to Prime members.
(Thanks for highlighting this, Fogey. I've added it to my "to watch" list.
It is on my "watch list" but I haven't seen it yet. Once I do, I will certainly let you know my thoughts.
So, I watched this movie this morning, and I really liked it. I figured out the twist very early, but that didn't detract from the story at all for me. Sometimes I forget that Stallone can act, and he proves it here. Highly recommended.
I just watched it.
At the end, Sam says "he saved my life." In my version he says "he saved my life. And he fixed my watch!"
I think it was interesting that the kid's name was Sam. As in Samaritan's son? He seemed pretty strong for a little boy.