Samaritan
Amazon Prime Video | Release Date (Streaming): August 26, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
45
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
15
Negative:
7
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiAug 25, 2022
Avery’s film is a solid piece of genre entertainment, grounded by excellent performances, and clever enough to find a new way to present the same old tropes. Like an old hunk of junk fixed and cleaned up, and made into something new again, and worth paying full price for. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperAug 25, 2022
This is an entertaining B-movie bolstered by performances from a cast that often rises above the predictable material. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayAug 26, 2022
Both Stallone and the assured young actor Walton give fine, nuanced performances — as does Asbaek. The premise of “Samaritan” is the stuff of cartoons, but the actors makes the stakes feel real. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckAug 25, 2022
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. Read full review
65
SlashfilmSarah MilnerAug 25, 2022
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. Read full review
61
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpAug 26, 2022
The Boys, Samaritan is not. But even a failed attempt at making a superhero movie out of whole cloth rather than pre-existing IP is welcome, particularly one that challenges the genre’s mores. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanAug 25, 2022
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. Read full review
58
UproxxMike RyanSep 3, 2022
What somewhat saves Samaritan is Stallone. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 26, 2022
Samaritan isn’t terrible but neither is it especially good. It’s a B-grade comic book movie that looks, sounds, and plays like a B-grade comic book movie. Read full review
50
ColliderMarco Vito OddoAug 26, 2022
The movie doesn’t stand out for its action scenes, has nothing new to say about the old good-versus-evil conflict at the center of any superhero story, and is incapable of giving its villains real purpose. Stallone is a strong man, but even he cannot carry the weight of an entire movie alone. Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenAug 25, 2022
Originality was on vacation when this picture was made. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubBrett BuckalewAug 25, 2022
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. Read full review
50
IndieWireKate ErblandAug 25, 2022
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. Read full review
42
ConsequenceErin BradyAug 25, 2022
The potential of this project as an insightful and thrilling look at superheroes was massive, which makes the fact that it’s just so boring and poorly put together that much worse. Read full review
40
Screen RantGraeme GuttmannAug 26, 2022
In the end, Samaritan commits a cardinal sin of the superhero genre: It thinks a high-profile actor with vaguely defined superpowers is enough to make the film interesting when it clearly needs something more. Read full review
40
CNNBrian LowryAug 26, 2022
An animated, comic-book-inspired opening turns out to be the best part of Samaritan, a very by-the-numbers superhero tale that casts Sylvester Stallone as the long-retired title character, and otherwise feels like and exhibits the production values of a 1990s TV pilot. While tolerable on its own terms, the charitable thing to do critically speaking would probably be to ignore it. Read full review
40
We Got This CoveredScott CampbellAug 25, 2022
Samaritan had the potential to stand out among a crowded pack with Sylvester Stallone as a veteran superhero drawn out of retirement, but it doesn't bring anything new or noteworthy to the table. Read full review
40
The New York TimesAmy NicholsonAug 25, 2022
Bragi F. Schut’s script mumbles its potentially intriguing themes. Read full review
40
EmpireJohn NugentAug 25, 2022
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. Read full review
40
The GuardianBenjamin LeeAug 25, 2022
It’s a fresh spin that feels awfully stale, a Samaritan less good and more mediocre. Read full review
40
IGNSiddhant AdlakhaAug 25, 2022
Sylvester Stallone doesn’t seem thrilled to be playing a superhero in Samaritan, a hodgepodge of non-ideas borrowed from better movies. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 26, 2022
The effects are good enough, but there’s a lack of wit and ambition here that just reeks. Read full review
38
PolygonJesse HassengerAug 26, 2022
The movie is so poorly staged that it manages to conceal the supposedly important hero/kid bonding elements, while telegraphing early on where the rest of the story is going. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonAug 26, 2022
Samaritan proves, to paraphrase Tina Turner, that we don’t need another superhero. Read full review
38
Slant MagazinePat BrownAug 25, 2022
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. Read full review
33
UproxxVince ManciniSep 3, 2022
Usually when you overtly acknowledge the tropes and standard story beats in a movie like this, it’s for some purpose, some comment about what we like about or what it means to be a comic book movie. Samaritan is really none of that, it’s more like discount comic book movie slurry. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonAug 26, 2022
They can give the film’s characters physics-defying acrobatic skills. But they can’t provide anyone much motivation. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleZaki HasanAug 25, 2022
It’s a pastiche of a pastiche, cycling through familiar tropes without adding anything to them; turning what could have been a fascinating critique of society’s superhero obsession into just another way of indulging it. Read full review
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