Simply A Masterpiece

People are voting emotionally.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Foley (Samuel L. Jackson) leaves prison after serving 25 years. Everybody he knows are dead or dying. He is approached by Ethan (Luke Kirby) who is the son of his best friend. Foley was forced to kill Ethan's father in that last job 25 years ago. Ethan sends drug-addict Iris (Ruth Negga) to be with Foley. Foley rescues her from creepy Jake. After sleeping with her, Ethan reveals the shocking truth about Iris. To keep it a secret, Foley is forced to work for Ethan in a scam against gangster Xavier (Tom Wilkinson).The first half meanders quite a bit. I was waiting for the movie to move in one direction and boy, what a move! It's quite a shocking twist. I don't agree with how the story moves afterwards. I don't think it's a move that Ethan would do if his only aim is to get his help. It is however an epic revenge move. The other notable aspect is hard-boil noir look that is imparted on Toronto. Ruth Negga is great and she's great with Jackson. I simply think the story should go in a different way.

I write reviews for each movie I see on my personal blog. Mostly for myself so I'll remember what I thought about it... When looking at a certain amount of movies I have almost forgot some completely. Writing has made me think in a more critical way.While thinking in a critical way (sort of) watching this movie I thought about positive and negative sides. Without making this up to be "the greatest movie ever made" I didn't really find any negative sides. I guess it takes a while before the plot to show itself.. But in that regard it's still better than many other movies. So that is a nitpick more than a definite negative comment.Samuel L. Jackson has become one of the biggest stars of our time.. Staring in movies like Star Wars and the most famous Quentin Tarantino movies. Despite this he still star in quite many smaller films. Some right down b-movies. Why? Don't know. But some of the less famous work are surprisingly good. This is definitely one of the better one's... It's actually one of the best movies I've seen in quite a while with only a few competitors.The environments look dark and fitting. Once the story gets going it is never predictable and yet never loose it's touch (just destroys what could been something really good). The movie is raw and far from the "child-friendly" bigger Hollywood-movies. Though the amount of nudity or violence isn't too much it's just a part of the story.. Like it should in a good movie!Before watching IMDb I thought this movie must surely have the rate "7/10" or higher. When seeing "5,6/10" I can't believe that I and the rest, who must put a quite low grade, watched the same movie. I've seen plenty "5-6/10" movies lately and this is just better in every sense.I highly recommend this to anyone!

If you have nothing better to watch, then go to bed. SLJ was OK in this. the plot was full of holes, the acting wooden, the cast other than "Ethan" garbage. The "love interest" was a) poor actress b) not pretty c) not believable d)cheesy. The ending was predictable and cheesy. I reckon SLJ must have done this one for free, as a 12Mil budget is nothing these days. They definitely used a B list casting here, no doubt to compensate for SLJ fee. I think a lot of SLJ films are excellent, I can only assume he did this one as a favor to someone. Someone said there were a lot of twists in this movie, I can only imagine they have not seen a lot of movies outside of American RomComs as the "twists" were entirely predictable and obvious. I gave it 5/10, change that to 4/10.

The plot: An ex-con looking to go straight is blackmailed into one last grift.I'm a huge sucker for film noir, so it's not like I could pass up a chance at watching a gritty crime thriller with Sam Jackson. I was a bit apprehensive when I saw the critical disdain, but I figured it'd be worth a try. I think some of the critics were a bit harsh, but this isn't really a great movie. There are certainly some good aspects to it, but the aggressively derivative elements really drag down the score. If it had been less of a pastiche (and outright ripoff) of certain movies, this could have been good. Unfortunately, to mention its primary inspiration would be a huge spoiler.If you're tolerant of "homage", not looking for a unique story, and are a fan of either noir or Sam Jackson, then there's a fair chance that you'll enjoy The Samaritan. I found it quite watchable, but I was not impressed with the directing or writing. The acting, on the other hand, was fine. There are only two or three scenes with Sam Jackson's trademark outbursts of angry yelling, so you might want to load up Pulp Fiction again if that's what you're looking for.Any true Sam Jackson fan has sat through some really terrible movies. This is nowhere near the bottom, but it's somewhat frustrating in that you can see how this could have been a good movie if they'd tried a little harder.