By: John M Jerva

Sylvester Stallone’s dark, brutal and ambitious superhero film Samaritan is one of those movies hit hard by the pandemic as it should have seen a release already. Unfortunately, the studio has delayed it until next year so most fans have a long wait.

Some lucky viewers were treated to first look footage at this year’s CinemaCon and from the description, people are saying that this is a classic befitting the iconic star. Take a peek at what the footage teased below courtesy of JoBlo.com.

In the footage, you see Stallone as a garbage man being stalked by a young boy (Javon Walton), who’s convinced he’s a long-lost superhero named Samaritan. Stallone tells him that he’s not, but the ruse is broken when he gets hit by a truck and is able to snap all of his bones back into place.

From there, we get Stallone explaining to the boy that “things fall apart when you stop caring, and I stopped caring a long time ago.”I’ve got to say, this movie, which Overload‘s Julius Avery directs, looks terrific. For one thing, it’s Stallone’s biggest solo movie in years. It’s an A-class studio film with a healthy budget, and Avery seems to be making the most out of having such an iconic star in the leading role. We all know Sly as an icon, and his new character, Samaritan, could become a classic for him.

The biggest plus to take away from the footage was Stallone, seeming bulletproof, dispatches a gauntlet of baddies with his bare hands and a sledgehammer and that it definitely looks hard R rated. The teaser ends with Stallone killing one unlucky man in particular brutal fashion.

Hopefully with this film being an adult action film, then Stallone has learned his lesson and will deliver an equally hard R rated Expendables film next year.

Stallone plays the title role of Stanley Kominski who is “a sanitation worker trying to live a normal life while harboring a deep secret”. 

The cast includes Martin Starr, Pilou Asbæk, Dascha Polanco, Moises Arias, Jared Odrick, Michael Aaron Milligan, and Natacha Karam with Overlord helmer Julius Avery directing.

For those of you who were intrigued by Sylvester Stallone’s dark take on the superhero genre Samaritan will have to wait even longer as United Artists have officially announced that the film will now see a theater launch date of August 26th, 2022.