27
posted ago by acp_k2win ago by acp_k2win +27 / -0

https://thetvdb.com/movies/133332-samaritan

tl;dr Worth a watch. Wholesome lower-budget comic-book street-level superhero movie where Sylvester Stallone does a great job and the kid character isn't totally awful.

Non-spoiler summary:

Years ago in Granite City a pair of brothers with unique abilities became Super Hero Samaritan and Super Villain Nemesis. In a climactic battle Nemesis was killed and Samaritan disappeared. In the present, the city is rundown and the inhabitants are turning to crime to get by. A notorious gang leader is following in the footsteps of Nemesis working to finish the revolution that was planned all those years ago. One boy hasn't given up hope that Samaritan will return.

Spoilers ahead ----

summary:

Through a series of coincidences the boy finds out his neighbor Sylvester Stallone is the hero of old. However he is retired and just wants to be left alone. Of course the plot contrives to pull Sly out of retirement. Eventually this culminates in a final confrontation between the hero and the heir to the villain's title.

Analysis:

The movie isn't the best there is of this genre but it is entertaining enough. You can see the PG13 rating in that people get shot and pummeled in ways that no human could survive but just fall over "knocked out" without any blood. This makes the action feel power-ranger-ish but there are still some decent scenes.

What I really liked is there was close to a 100% positive message. Without any outright preaching there several biblical references and allusions. For example in one scene the hero is surrounded by goons and breaks the supporting pillars around him, collapsing the roof on all of them recreating the end of Samson. There are also a lot of references to movies with similar themes, the bad guy wears a jacket like Bane in Dark Knight Rises, there is a Robocop arcade game in the bad guys lair, etc.

Detailed ratings (lower is better)

Faggotry/Degeneracy: 0

No homos, no promiscuity, no sexual content whatsoever.

Feminism: 0

No "stronk wamen" or anti-male messaging. The main character's mother is single but the movie doesn't make that noble and in fact shows how rough of a time she is having. The villain's 2nd in command is a woman but she isn't shown as anything special.

Diversity: .5

The City is shown as diverse but race is never brought up. The villain's gang has all races but again everything is 90s "colorblind".

Subversion(anti-white, anti-west, anti-Christian): 0

An actually good message that the people who are leading "revolutions" may pretend to have higher ideals but really are nothing but self-centered jerks who want to break stuff. Also a good Aesop at the end of the movie with the Solzhenitsyn line about every mans heart contains both good and evil, so we are all obligated to remain vigilant against the evil within us.