Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Emerenciano It is another action / noir - or whatever you wanna name it - film. Things are explained in half a second and the action, drama and love scenes take long minutes. A typical "you don't nedd to understand it, simply enjoy the action" thing. But you know what? That's what entertainment seems to be. Not that I like it, but it is what it is. And the film brings Samuel L. Jackson, one of everybody's favourite actors, so it is worthy trying "The Samaritan". The twists in the plot , mainly in the last minutes, play a good role and make the 90 min projection a good time.Try it, but don't expect a lot.

Tss5078 Taking story lines straight out of other films and blending them together, The Samaritan is one strange and confusing film, that will really turn people off. While watching this film, one could easily identify elements straight from films such as Shaft, Payback, and Oldboy, making this film anything but original. Samuel L. Jackson stars as a con man, who has just been released from prison. He's been in there a long time and wants to go straight, but his partners son is determined to make sure that doesn't happen. Samuel L. Jackson is a legendary star that can carry any film he stars in. I love his personality and will watch anything he's in, I even sat through Black Snake Moan, but The Samaritan makes even less sense than that did. The story is just completely all over the place, jumping from one thing to another, without resolving any of the issues it presents. Often times films like that will come together in a terrific ending, but the end of the Samaritan just leaves more questions than answers. Jackson is of course very solid and shows his wide range or ability and emotion, but the rest of the cast is just awful. Independent films often times only feature one person of recognition, but when you're releasing a film like this one, which is heavily advertising that star, you've got to give them something to work with. I honestly feel like some of these people were just pulled off the street and asked if they wanted to be in a movie, their inexperience is that obvious. When you add to that a confusing story line, that is full of slang and innuendo, the result is something that is unwatchable. The biggest star in the world couldn't have made a film like this work.The Samaritan is a rare instance where I wish I had listened to my fellow reviewers and just let this one pass me by.

Daniel Miller Normally I would just skip over movies I've never heard of and that haven't been in theatres before. But this one caught my eye, but not because it stars Samuel L. Jackson. Over the month of November and December I got caught up in a TV series on Netflix called 'Leverage' which was about a group of con artists who helped everyday people with problems that couldn't be resolved using the usual means. When I read the synopsis for this movie it sounded very similar to that TV show so I gave it a try. That's where the similarities end though. This movie stars Samuel L. Jackson as a grifter who's spent the last 25 years of his life in jail for killing his partner in a grift that went wrong. After his release he tries to find old acquaintances only to learn they've either passed away or want nothing to do with that life. He does try to find meaningful employment, but like most ex cons has a hard time. Then he meets the adult son of the partner her killed 25 years ago who offers him an opportunity to make a final big score worth $8 million. Without giving away some big plot twists, at first he's resistant to go back to his old ways, but after some unforeseen circumstances he agrees to doing the grift. Samuel L. Jackson's acting is fantastic as are all the supporting cast of fairly unknowns. Tom Wilkinson plays a small part as the mark of the grift but the rest of the cast is unknown to me. If you're looking for a suspenseful movie with lots of intrigue this is the movie for you.

Paul Magne Haakonsen As much as I enjoy Samuel L. Jackson's movies, then "The Samaritan" was a little bit difficult to get through. The movie wasn't bad, don't get me wrong, it was just slow paced and took forever to get anywhere.The story is about Foley (played by Samuel L. Jackson) who gets out from jail after twenty years of incarceration. Wanting to live a respectable and law-abiding life, and with just that life within grasp together with the young woman, Iris, that he met, the past catches up with Foley and he is being pressured into doing another grift.Storywise, then "The Samaritan" was alright. Mind you, it wasn't an overly mind-blowing story, but it was nicely told and well acted, and thus it was a watchable movie. However, this movie is the type that you watch once and never again, as it just doesn't have enough contents to support multiple viewings.What sort of drained the enjoyment out of the movie for my part, aside from the slow pace, was that the storyline was predictable and there were no surprises or thrills anywhere through the entire 90 minutes. As such, then there are far better movies in this particular genre of ex-criminals returning to a life of crime.The cast was alright, and I will say that they did good jobs with their given roles, and it was, of course, Samuel L. Jackson who carried the movie. I will also point out that the supporting roles performed by Alan C. Peterson (playing Miro) and Tom Wilkinson (playing Xavier) really did add something good to the movie.In overall, then "The Samaritan" is a mediocre result, which doesn't bring anything new or spectacular to the genre.