What are you planning on getting up to when you’re 76 years old? Perhaps taking up a new crafty hobby, getting radicalised by some Facebook conspiracy, or merely sitting back to watch your grandkids play, their lives only just blossoming as yours nears its gentle end.
Not Sylvester Stallone, though. After decades of action-man roles, he’s still kicking, and even serving some Old Man Logan grizzled ex-superhero energy in his newest film. Samaritan hits Prime Video on August 26, just the latest in a long string of Stallone vehicles where he’s the under-appreciated muscle man his city sorely needs.
We get a bit of context for this original superhero swan song in the trailer below. Stallone just seems like a gruff ol’ garbage man at the start, before his tween neighbour (Javon ‘Wanna’ Walton) witnesses him flinging some thugs around in an alleyway like they’re mosquitoes.
“Kid, Samaritan’s dead”, Stallone denies to the hoodie-wearing youngun, before his bones magically latch together despite being bashed up by a car. This is a hero who could easily fake his own death and live in the shadows for 25 years, even as his hometown crumbles under the weight of petty crime and corruption. The real pain is in choosing to care again, and to maybe chuck that plasticky black costume on one more time.
From Australian director Julius Avery, Samaritan was supposed to get a theatrical release from MGM back in 2020. Instead it’s dropping directly onto Amazon’s streaming platform, after the mega-retailer purchased MGM Studios a while back, making the film available at no extra cost to Prime Video subscribers.
It should be a triumphant sight to see Sly as a good Samaritan, with some knuckle-dusting superpowers to back up his usual Rambo antics. Even if it takes some little kid’s whingeing to get him back to heroics.
