Samaritan Trailer Is Peak Sylvester Stallone
In Sylvester Stallone's golden era, the world knew him as a very different breed of hero compared to the costumed ones cinema-going audiences are accustomed to now. Rather than overcome evil with a super-powered team-up, Stallone was better known for drawing first blood as John Rambo or stepping into the ring as legendary Italian Stallion Rocky Balboa. Times, of course, have changed. Since then, the director, Oscar-nominated writer, and actor has had a somewhat mixed-bag relationship with taking on speech-bubble-spewing heroes. There was his notoriously rotten take on "Judge Dredd" in the '90s, but that was followed by more successful appearances in the James Gunn flicks "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" and "The Suicide Squad," in which he provided the voice of King Shark.
Although those latter appearances were limited, they did prove that Stallone can hang with our modern heroes. Now he's set to have even more screen time as a super-powered protagonist in a role that feels like a custom fit with Amazon Prime's "Samaritan." Cut from the same comic book-like cloth as "Logan" and "The Dark Knight Returns," the new trailer has given us a first look at Stallone's titular hero, who, as grumpy as he may seem, looks to have one more fight left in him.
The Samaritan suits Stallone well in the brand new trailer
"Samaritan" follows a young boy, Sam Cleary (Javon Walton), who believes that his next-door neighbor, Mr. Smith (Sylvester Stallone), is Samaritan, a forgotten superhero who vanished after an epic defeat from his former foe, Nemesis. Twenty-five years later, Granite City has been left to ruin thanks to crime, corruption, and a vast increase in bad guys. It needs a hero's return to set things straight — and lucky for Sam, he may be hiding right across the street.
As far as under-the-radar superhero outings go, there looks to be a lot of promise in "Samaritan," given some of the talent involved. Julius Avery is calling the shots as director, casting a slightly softer lens than the grisly, gung-ho spectacle of his WWII schlock-fest "Overlord." That film's antagonist, Pilou Asbæk, is back on bad guy duty here and having just as much fun, albeit a little less monstrously (thankfully).
The real draw, though, is what looks to be the great chemistry between the super Hollywood icon and his young co-star. Stallone has proven in "Creed" and even the later "Rocky" movies that he can handle playing the worn-down mentor without an issue, so delivering it opposite one of the promising talents from "Euphoria" is something to look forward to. You can see just how good a "Samaritan" Stallone is when the movie arrives on Amazon Prime on August 26.