37
Metascore
15 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThe Samaritan isn't a great noir, but it's true to the tradition and gives Samuel L. Jackson one of his best recent roles.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenThe Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenA gritty serving of pulp fiction masterfully perpetrated by Samuel L. Jackson as a philosophical ex-con trying to buck the considerable odds by taking a shot at redemption.
- Svelte enough in its reassembling of familiar elements to be, for a while, as comfortably pleasant as sipping on what once used to be your go-to drink - until 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.
- 50VarietyRobert KoehlerVarietyRobert KoehlerIf anything, this Canadian production misses a great opportunity to dig into its setting and examine the dark side of seemingly pristine Toronto, even as the script by Elan Mastai and director David Weaver labors over a mostly boilerplate storyline.
- 50Chicago ReaderChicago ReaderAn odd stylistic mash-up, the movie never quite coheres, in part because the characters are so thin that the style doesn't have much to cohere to.
- 42The A.V. ClubSam AdamsThe A.V. ClubSam AdamsIt's difficult to describe The Samaritan, in which Samuel L. Jackson plays an ex-con trying to return to the straight and narrow after 25 years inside, without overlapping a dozen other movies in his nigh-endless filmography, nor watch any scene without thinking of how many times he's drawn from the same bag of tricks.
- 40The GuardianAndrew PulverThe GuardianAndrew PulverA clotted, knotted, twisty noir that is, unfortunately, short on the required atmosphere.
- 30Village VoiceNick SchagerVillage VoiceNick SchagerWeaver's story slowly begins to buckle under the weight of its own self-seriousness and familiarity, concluding with a showdown and resolution marked by one implausible and unsatisfying been-here-done-that twist after another.
- 20Time OutEric HynesTime OutEric HynesNo one expects a Samuel L. Jackson thriller to be Shakespeare, but David Weaver's wanna-be '70s-grindhouse cheapie doesn't even achieve serviceability.
- 20New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNew York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanThe most charitable approach to this unfortunate diversion in Jackson's career would be to pretend it never happened. Now, who wants to go see "The Avengers" again?