Kurt Loder on The Samaritan and Lovely Molly

The Samaritan stars Samuel L. Jackson as Foley, an old grifter just out of the slam after doing 25 years on a murder rap. Determined to go straight, he becomes involved with a young woman half his age and begins to envision a happy, law-abiding life that could lie ahead of them. Then, as is always the case in this sort of by-the-numbers neo-noir, Foley's violent past comes calling, with inevitably unfortunate results.

Lovely Molly, meanwhile, is a familiar "found footage" style of supernatural horror thriller from director Eduardo Sánchez, who has been little heard from since 1999, when he and film-school buddy Daniel Myrick whipped up The Blair Witch Project, a micro-budget movie that went on to gross $248-million worldwide. Kurt Loder reviews both new movies.