5.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
After twenty-five years in prison, Foley is finished with the grifter's life. When he meets an elusive young woman named Iris, the possibility of a new start looks real. But his past is proving to be a stubborn companion.
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Luke Kirby, Ruth Negga, Tom Wilkinson, Gil BellowsThriller | 100% |
Crime | 70% |
Film-Noir | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: LPCM 2.0
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The promotional imagery for The Samaritan recalls Samuel L. Jackson's previous turn as Detective John Shaft in director John Singleton's 2000 remake of the Seventies classic: same clean-shaven head, same leather jacket. But the whole thing is a con. Foley, the parolee Jackson plays in this film, is the opposite of the grinning "bad muthah" that swaggered through Singleton's film. Foley doesn't smile a lot. Having survived twenty-five years in prison, he has acquired skills that make him dangerous when cornered, but he's also learned to mind his own business. He'd much prefer to sit quietly and let the time pass. Still, the advertising isn't entirely wrong, because The Samaritan is all about false fronts and deception. The script, co-written by Canadian filmmakers Elan Mastai and director David Weaver, delights in proceeding sideways instead of forward. It details elaborate setups, only to reveal them as misdirection for something else. It relegates events to the background that, in another movie, would be front and center. While you're straining to glimpe what you think is the main action in the background, you get suckered by the real play close at hand. In the end, it's all been something of a cheat, but not in the wholesomely entertaining way we remember from The Sting. No, this con ends with a lot of corpses and blood and probably years on a psychiatrist's couch. For the viewer, though, it's anything but dull.
I wasn't able to confirm the shooting format for The Samaritan, but both the credits and the appearance suggest digital origination. The cinematographer was François Dagenais, who shoots a lot of work for Canadian television, where digital acquisition is common. The image on MPI Media's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray is clean, noiseless, detailed and, for the most part, very dark. Dagenais and director Weaver were obviously going for a film noir look, with much of the film set at night, on deserted city streets and in expansive areas of darkness, both indoors and out. Characters are often draped in shadow, in the manner of classic film noir heroes and villains. The Blu-ray rises to the challenge with deep blacks and well-delineated shades of black to allow figures to stand out against the darkness or disappear into it, as necessary. Colors are vibrant and saturated where they should be, as in Ethan's club, and dull and drab where they shouldn't, as in Foley's apartment. The occasional scene in bright light (notably, Xavier's introduction) is contrast-y, but not so much as to blow out detail. Banding is the Blu-ray's sole weakness, and it's manifest primarily on dissolves and fade-ins and fade-outs; these are common moments for banding to occur, but The Samaritan's occurrences are more severe than usual. Other forms of artifact, e.g., from compression, were not observed.
The sound mix for The Samaritan, delivered here in lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1, doesn't contain any flashy surround effects, but it does provide a satisfying accompaniment to the various environments that Foley traverses. We get the distant echoes of prison noises at the beginning; the unexpected quiet when Foley is on his own in an apartment; the pounding house music that nearly drowns out the voices at Ethan's club; the late-night hum at Bill's bar; the work sounds of the job site where Foley takes construction work (and where a loud accident proves to be a plot point); and many others as the story keeps shifting gears. Dialogue is always clear, and the musical score by Todor Kobakov (Monster Brawl ) and David Whalen provides suitable, if not noteworthy, accompaniment.
Other than the film's trailer (1080p; 2.35:1; 2:21), no extras are included. At startup, the disc plays trailers (in 1080p) for Citizen Gangster, Kill List, The Snowtown Murders and Polisse. These can be skipped with the chapter forward button and are not otherwise available once the disc loads.
I can't say whether The Samaritan will wear well on subsequent viewings, and I can imagine that there will be some viewers who will find it disturbing (and not in a good way) on even a first encounter. The film has the virtue of being unexpected, which is never a quality to be undervalued. In the end, the film's story may not add up to much, but it provides an occasion for Samuel L. Jackson to do the fine character work that has become the norm in his career to the point that it is almost taken for granted. Here, playing a man forced to confront sins of his past that he never even knew he committed, and fresh ones he has tried his best to avoid, Jackson reminds us why he remains one of the busiest and most durable actors in movies. Recommended with the caveat that it's not what you think.
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