Bad Samaritan - DVD Review

[Michael Scott]

Bad Samaritan

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
I like being surprised with lower budgeted films. I’m not often surprised with the DTV market, but everyone once in a while something comes along that really catches me by surprise and causes me to sit back and wonder just how that could have happened. The lower budget market (especially the thriller market) is just over saturated with mindless films that just regurgitate a dozen different themes in all the same ways, making them excruciatingly bland and boring to sit through. However, I was caught by surprise with Dean Devlin’s Bad Samaritan. The cover looked cheap, and the plot looked unoriginal (oh yay, a girl is being held captive and someone has to save her!), but I was taken aback when I became hooked within 15 minutes of starting the film.

Now Director Dean Devlin is really known for one thing. He’s he was the main writing and producing force behind Roland Emmerich and his preposterously giant mega blockbuster films (things like Independence Day, Godzilla, Stargate, etc), before splitting off a few years back with the mega director. Devlin had his hand with a smattering of Leverage and The Librarians episodes, but his only real feature film was last year’s release of Geostorm, which almost wiped him off the map. Geostorm was his attempt at recreating the mega blockbuster films of Roland Emmerich, but Devlin was so incapable of seeing the glorious cheese in the production that it ended up taking itself so seriously that no one could enjoy the project (Geostorm made 33 million dollars off of a 100 million dollar budget). Bad Samaritan takes a sharp turn from Emmerich’s method of giant disaster films, and instead focuses on a much tighter and cleaner subject. One of thrillers, terror, and twisted villains, with shockingly good results.

Bad Samaritan hooks the viewer in pretty quickly with a pair of down and out young men looking to make something of themselves. Sean (Robert Sheehan) and his buddy Derek (Carlito Olivero) are valets for a high end Italian restaurant in Oregon, but that’s not exactly their source of income. The two valets take customers cars, find out their owner’s home location, and go and rob the place while the family is having dinner. Usually they just steal petty stuff. Things like gift cards, watches, cameras and the like, but their life of petty crime takes a disastrous turn for the worst when they rob the wrong house. Sean stumbles onto the find of their life. A super rich target with a mansion not 3 miles away from the restaurant. Plenty of time to grab a few credit cards and valuables, then sniff around. That sniffing around nets Sean finding out a horrible secret about the man they’re robbing from. He has a young woman tied up in a room like an animal. Shocked and horrified, Sean runs from the place and calls the police. The only thing is, his target has more than enough money and alibis to weasel himself out from the authorities simple questioning.

Overcome with guilt at letting her stay there, Sean decides to make it his mission to free this girl. The only thing is, the man that he’s hunting is actually hunting HIM. Little by little their rich target (played by David Tennant) tears apart Sean and Derek’s life, destroying them little by little. Breaking the young thieves until there is nothing left. That is, unless Sean’s game of cat and mouse proves that he is the cat, and this monster is nothing but a mouse.

I guess you could say that Bad Samaritan is Dean Devlin’s best film by default (being that he’s directed only two feature film). Geostorm was an abysmal film that proved the fledgling director had much to learn, and Bad Samaritan proves that he has learned from his past mistakes, or at least he’s gotten some good advice and not written his own film, as this one is written by Brandon Boyce. There are some problems with the script relating to plot holes and some cliches about “rich people can get away with anything”, but Devlin gets so much more right than he does wrong. The characters are creepy as all get out, and quite believable. I’m not a wild fan of Sheehan, but he’s intense and powerful as the Irish immigrant who just wants to do the right thing for once in his life. David Tennant, on the other hand, is simply mesmerizing. If you wanted to see David Tennant play someone as brutally cold hearted as Kilgrave from Marvel’s Jessica Jones, then you can be sure that Dean Devlin did too. Tennant is deliciously evil as the twisted rich monster who breaks people like someone breaks a horse. Coldly calculating, brilliant and in control, he also showcases just how twisted and out of control the man is on the inside. You almost respect the guy’s brilliance and manipulation, but get a chill down your spine watching his ice cold lack of empathy and sheer unhinged maniacal breakdowns later in the film.

If I have anything to complain about with the movie is that it is bloated by about 10 or 15 minutes, and has a tendency of building up tension, only to have that tension be squandered. Sean gets in some incredibly tight spots, and once the boy gets out of them the tension just dissipates, only for a new scenario to be introduced where Devlin repeats the pattern. Still, Bad Samaritan is a surprisingly entertaining movie that keeps us hooked until the intense (even though slightly predictable) ending.




Rating:

Rated R for violence, language throughout, some drug use and brief nudity




Video:

Bad Samaritan was shot using the Red Weapon camera’s, with a native resolution of 6K and then transferred to an unknown resolution digital intermediate (which forms the master for both this DVD and the Blu-ray). I was a bit saddened that a film with a native capture resolution of 6K would forego the 4K UHD release and come out only on 480p and 1080p, but I’m guessing the low budget nature of the film kept it from that format. Either way, the DVD here looks rather good. The digitally shot film is a bit flat and desaturated most of the time, with the first ½ of the film being shot in darkness as Sean breaks into houses and sniffs around in the dark. Detail levels and clarity are quite good, but in some of the darker scenes there is a bit of digital noise. However, as the film progresses we get to see a much brighter and cleaner world as the film shifts to a daylight presence. The daylight shots are incredibly clear and sharp, with the end confrontation in the country estate looking magnificent (the stunning white snow, and sharp details are just astounding there).








Audio:

The 5.1 Dolby Digital track fares about as well as the video encode does. It’s an impressive sounding 5.1 mix that does just about everything right, but isn’t spectacular enough to really stand out as “amazing”. Dialog is cleanly replicated in the front of the stage, and the film’s tense score fills out all angles of the sound stage. Bass is weighty and precise, adding some oomph to the down beats in the score, as well as accentuate some of the more violent aspects of the film. Surrounds are filled out with the afore mentioned score, as well as the ambiance of a creaky house, or the soft crunching of feet in the Oregon forest. It’s a very nice sounding mix, but I did notice that it sounded just a bit thinner than expected. A side effect of listening to too many lossless audio tracks from Blu-ray and 4K UHD sources I’m guessing.


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Extras:

• Commentary with Director Dean Devlin and Writer Brandon Boyce
• 7 Deleted Secenes

Final Score: ​

Given a few re-edits, or maybe some re-writing from Boyce, and a few tweaks in the directorial department and this could have been a genuine hit for Devlin. That being said, Bad Samaritan is a HUGE step up for the fledgling director, and is actually a really entertaining film. His cast is impeccably chose, and the tension really dials up to the max for a good portion of the movie. I will say that some trimming of the fat was my only real complaint, and that I’m now actually looking forward to Devlin’s next film for once. Sony’s DVD is a very solid presentation, with good video and audio, but a sad lack of extras. At the end of the day I’m quite pleased with what we have here and definitely recommend it as a solid watch.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: David Tennant, Kerry Condon, Robert Sheehan
Directed by: Dean Devlin
Written by: Brandon Boyce
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 MPEG2
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Studio: Sony
Rated: R
Runtime: 110 Minutes
DVD Release Date: August 14th, 2018

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Solid Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Will check it out.

By the way, you put reviewe at the subject line.. Typo with the last "e"?

 

[Michael Scott]

fixed

 

[Asere]

I too will check it out. Thank you!

 

[Todd Anderson]

Are we in FULL OCTOBER mode or what?

 

[Michael Scott]

lol, they're coming in hot and heavy I noticed.