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Movie Review: 'Bad Samaritan'

David Tennant goes full Nicholas Cage in 'Bad Samaritan.'

By Sean PatrickPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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To paraphrase the darkly brilliant Tropic Thunder, Never go full Nicholas Cage. This kind of advice should not be necessary; even if you are Nicholas Cage you likely should not go full Nicholas Cage at all times. The full Nicholas Cage is when an actor decides that a fully unhinged from any discernible reality performance is necessary. Poor David Tennant goes full Nicholas Cage in the new movie Bad Samaritan and demonstrates why my admonishment is necessary.

Bad Samaritan begins on an interesting, 'What would you do?' premise: What would you do if you broke into someones home and found they had someone kidnapped and bound in their office? That's the situation our supposed hero, Sean Falco (Robert Sheehan), finds himself in while running a valet scam with a friend.

The idea is that Sean and his buddy contract with a restaurant to provide valet services to their customers and then take the opportunity to break into people's homes while they eat and steal small amounts of money or jewelry. It's mostly a thrill-seeking bit for Sean who has a promising career as a photographer.

The thrill is gone when Sean breaks into the home of a jerk named Cale Erendreich (Tennant). Inside the glassy manse, Sean finds plenty of things to steal but what he finds in Cale's office changes everything. There, Cale has a woman named Katie (Kerry Condon) bound and gagged and begging to be freed. This is no game, she's been kidnapped and when Sean stumbles on Cale's Dexter-esque murder room in the garage, he knows he must act to save Katie's life.

Bad Samaritan is directed with sledgehammer subtlety by Dean Devlin, the auteur behind 2017's Geostorm and producer of many of Roland Emmerich's crimes against cinema. Bad Samaritan marks a first small-scale production for Devlin who has been known for big-budget flash. Bad Samaritan has a small scale but Devlin is no more capable on a small scale than he's been with a giant canvas.

I will say, I found Robert Sheehan's performance appealing. Despite Devlin directing him to go over the top, Sheehan maintains Sean's likability and keeps him human and sympathetic. The plot pushes Sean around like a piece on a checkerboard but Sheehan makes a strong effort to keep Sean a grounded and sympathetic figure.

Bad Samaritan has a number of silly things but the stand out for me has to be the invention of Chekhov's topless selfie. A scene early in Bad Samaritan earns the films unnecessary R-Rating by having Sean snap a topless picture of his girlfriend, Riley (Jacqueline Byers). The scene exists solely so that Tennant's psycho can steal the photo and post it while posing as Sean. This plot point is a strong example of how clumsy the whole of Bad Samaritan is.

Finally, there is poor, misguided, former Doctor Who star, David Tennant. If only someone had told him not to go full Nicholas Cage before making Bad Samaritan. Sadly, the full Nicholas Cage is where Tennant goes in Bad Samaritan and his thriller baddie becomes a camp nightmare, a teeth gnashing, screeching, scenery gulping menace.

Tennant becomes not a villain to be feared, but a mildly psychotic clown, easily defeated by a part-time thief/photographer. The film is full of clumsy shading in of Cale's backstory but watching Tennant descend into Cage-level madness, the likes of which were on display in The Wicker Man or Ghost Rider, turns what should be something menacing into something comic and tragic.

I know David Tennant is a great actor, I am a huge fan of his work on Doctor Who and Broadchurch. Knowing this, I can only imagine that he must have been directed to act like an absolute loon here. Dean Devlin must be responsible for this; I have to believe that he was responsible for Tennant's Bad Samaritan performance in order to maintain my high opinion of one of my favorite Doctor Who actors.

Dean Devlin, for future reference, don't let your actors go full Nicholas Cage.

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About the Creator

Sean Patrick

Hello, my name is Sean Patrick He/Him, and I am a film critic and podcast host for the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast I am a voting member of the Critics Choice Association, the group behind the annual Critics Choice Awards.

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