The Samaritan (2012)
Average Rating: 4.1/10
Reviews Counted: 32
Fresh: 7 | Rotten: 25
The Samaritan is a ludicrous neo-noir starring a seemingly bored Samuel L. Jackson.
Average Rating: 3.8/10
Critic Reviews: 14
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 11
The Samaritan is a ludicrous neo-noir starring a seemingly bored Samuel L. Jackson.
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Average Rating: 3.1/5
User Ratings: 4,659
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Movie Info
After twenty‐five years in prison, Foley (Samuel L. Jackson) is finished with the grifter's life. When he meets an elusive young woman named Iris (Ruth Negga), the possibility of a new start looks real. But his past is proving to be a stubborn companion: Ethan (Luke Kirby), the son of his former partner, has an ingenious plan and he wants Foley in. The harder Foley tries to escape his past, the tighter he is ensnared in Ethan's web of secrets, until it becomes all too clear to Foley that
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Cast
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Samuel L. Jackson
Foley -
Luke Kirby
Ethan -
Ruth Negga
Iris -
Tom Wilkinson
Xavier -
Gil Bellows
Bartender Bill -
Aaron Poole
Jake -
Tom McCamus
Deacon -
Martha Burns
Gretchen -
Alan C. Peterson
Miro -
Robert Archer Lynn
Vernon Hicks -
Diana Leblanc
Celia -
Rufus Crawford
Construction Foreman -
Deborah Kara Unger
Helena -
Jonas Chernick
Club Manager
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All Critics (33) | Top Critics (14) | Fresh (7) | Rotten (25)
It's not honest with its people, or its plot. And the only ones it really cheats are audience members.
Top Critic[Jackson's] doleful revenant is in almost every scene, and this hardworking actor seems to know that the film around him should be a light-footed caper instead of a grim noir with a side order of deviance.
A scripted cliché: the ex-con who wants to go straight until the plot kicks in.
"The Samaritan" proves that even Samuel L. Jackson can be boring.
The haphazard feeling of the narrative deflates any real tension.
Way too much psychosexual melodrama, portrayed in performances that range from utterly bored (Jackson) to embarrassingly broad (Kirby).
What could have been an intriguing character study about redemption turns into an absurd series of eye-rolling plot twists that makes it impossible to take this mess seriously.
Director David Weaver and co-writer Elan Mastai's neo-noir script is just a shadow of the genre.
It packs its narrative with a succession of increasingly clichéd twists, one of which involves the sudden recognition that its main character, Foley (Samuel L. Jackson), is romantically involved with his own daughter.
The experience of watching Samuel L. Jackson actually act is the only real pleasure to be gleaned from the movie.
Even the spirited Ruth Negga can't lift this by-the-numbers neo-noir out of its dull parboiled rut.
Director David Weaver and co-writer Elan Mastai twist the movie in several different directions before settling for a professional but generic pulp thriller.
It seems impossible that Jackson could go through an entire movie without ever raising his voice, but here he is.
The Samaritan takes a jarring turn right out of Park Chan-wook, and from there takes a tumble into ludicrousness from which it doesn't recover.
It's thoroughly mediocre, which feels like such a disappointment when one considers that the script's ingredients include murder, deception, sex, and ungodly sin.
Jackson seems only interested in cashing his paycheck, even if it's not an especially large one.
...goes from mechanical to (unintentionally) hilarious, stopping frequently at the cliché shop along the way.
Audience Reviews for The Samaritan
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Foley: I had a partner once....I killed him.
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- Iris: I can't remember the last time I did something I was proud of.
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- Foley: If you keep on doing what you`ve always done ,you'll keep on being what you've always been, nothing changes unless you make it change, I know what it sounds like but every morning that I wake up I think about what that really means .Nothing Changes Unless You Make It Change.
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Latest News on The Samaritan
May 17, 2012:
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