The Samaritan (2012)

good back-story, and good acting

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Films like this don't seen to rate very highly on IMDb although they will find their adherents. I thought it was a pretty good caper film with more than it's share of twists and turns. Sometimes these movies try to be so clever that they implode on themselves, but this one caught itself up once we come to know the relationship between ex-con Foley (Samuel L. Jackson) and the young hooker Iris (Ruth Negga). Thereafter it becomes the grift that Foley didn't want to get tangled up in, in the first place. A couple of things that didn't ring true for me was how quickly and easily Xavier (Tom Wilkinson) decided that Foley should launder his eight million dollars for him. Just like that - what?!?! Even crazier was the idea that Xavier actually had the eight million in a suitcase with him when all the players came together. Personally, I thought Helena (Deborah Kara Unger) hanging herself was going to turn out to be an element of the grift, but referring back to my earlier warning, things didn't go in that direction.Anyway, I'm satisfied that Ethan (Luke Kirby) got what was coming to him. I thought he was a punk and in way over his head to attempt a con job like this one. Too bad about Foley but that's the way the bullets fly. One thing I'd like to know, is how much Miro (A.A. Peterson) kept for his trouble stitching up Iris. Hopefully enough to retire himself.

I am a pretty big fan of Samuel L but who isn't right? So when I saw that he was the executive producer I was thinking this could have potential and figured ole Sam had a project he really liked and believed in, but to me it lost it's edge near it's end. I really liked the acting, that wasn't the problem at all. I found Ruth Negga's performance quite good, I had not seen her in anything but she is a very beautiful and talented women so I look forward to seeing her in other films. Tom wilkinson was great as always, he's done so many good movies and I have really come to enjoy his range and talent as an actor over the years, I just wished he had a larger role in this film) Luke Kirby was great as well, he really plays the guy u love to hate well, I thought his character was a cocky, no good, slimy piece of dog excrement and believe me that is a complement to him and his performance (although it doesn't sound like it does it? Oh well). And Samuel L was fantastic as usual. The problem was either with the writing or the adaptation of it onto celluloid in my opinion. The movie starts off interesting enough and I actually found it to be picking up momentum as it went along and it also had a twist, a twisted twist if u will that was pretty off-putting but made the story more compelling and worked well. I really thought this movie was going to be great but near the end (and thats what is so disappointing) the movie just seemed kinda sloppy and confused on where it wanted to go. It's really a shame because it had a lot of potential but just couldn't quite seal the deal in my opinion. This wasn't an awful movie by any standards but it also wasn't great and will most likely be forgotten within a short amount time, oh well I guess u could say that about most movies huh?

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.

The Samaritan was surprisingly good in the sense that it had a pretty well drawn out story line and that the characters all seemed to make sense. There were quite a few twists and turns in the movie that seemed to drastically change the story - in a good way. The one huge plot twist was very big, but you can possibly see it from close to the beginning if you really pay attention to the details. I rated this movie a 7/10 because I feel as if Samuel L. Jackson could have done a bit better, but the female role was done extremely well. I would give her a 10/10 for this movie. As I said, this movie was actually a lot better than I had expected it to be.