The Saint (1997)

Movie Review: "The Saint" (1997)Developed as an high concept event movie at "Paramount Pictures" with an all-Hollywood-connected Robert Evans producing and actor Val Kilmer at the peak of his career at age 37, based on a utmost successfull television series running between 1962-1969 with Roger Moore (1927-2017) in the title role of an anonymous agent with no family, no home and no real identity "Simon Templar", here put into high end "Hollywood" succession accompanied by sublime acting supports Elizabeth Shue and Rade Serbedzija, when director Phillip Noyce, known for still-great all-running thrillers "Dead Calm" (1988) starring Nicole Kidman and "Patriot Games" (1992) starring Harrison Ford, fails to create a new-age classic,which connects with the young adult international audiences in spring of 1997, nevertheless even in a remaining mediocre at times sloppy 110-Minute-Cut by editor Terry Rawlings to be somehow reconsidered 21 years after of being not as bad motion picture entertainment after all.Copyright 2018 Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC

The Saint captures the moody, adventurous, achingly romantic aura of the great espionage tale better than some of the Bond films even do. It's not a perfect film, but it's a great time at the movies, pure spy escapism and cinematic pleasure. Val Kilmer plays Simon Templar, a mysterious, slippery international thief who takes dangerous employ from anyone willing to pay a night, discreet price for his unique talents. He also uses an elaborate range of disguises, with alias names coined by the Catholic saints. He is hired by a shadowy Russian billionaire (Rade Serbedzija) to steal the formula for a cold fusion device from a beautiful scientist (Elizabeth Shue). Naturally he falls in love with her and they end up on the run from the billionaire, his forces, MI6 and everyone in between. It's not a heavy hitting action romp like it sounds, but more of an atmospheric, romantic, theatrically inclined bit of intrigue, and a whole lot of slow burning fun. Much of the action takes place in gorgeous, picturesque Moscow, giving it a lovely, old world, almost John Le Carre esque feel. Kilmer is awesome, underplaying every disguise and clearly having a lot of fun, his own Templar identity a moody mix of guilt and passion. Shue takes the gorgeous scientist cliché and spins it for a believable, humbled character which works excellently. There's cool work from Alun Armstrong, Valery Nikolaev, and a cameo from Emily Mortimer as well. For fans of spy adventure flicks with a globetrotting, master of disguise sense of adventure, this one spins a tale worth tuning into.

I think that if there was a hitparade of clichés this movie would hit most of them.Story of tragic children love, which leads to the main character being a human chameleon, who picks his names after Catholic saints until he's tasked with stealing formulas from lonely romantic scientists, only to fall in love with her and risking everything just to save her from the terrible villains (who, according to number of other clichés, are Russian). Of course, she searches for him, and once again, the star-crossed lovers are running for their lives. Of course the whole movie ends well - the thief escapes the clutches of Justice, and poof, happy ending.Giving the rating I did mostly because I like clichés and because I liked how villainy the villains were. Oh, and for Frankie. I really liked her character.

This movie was horrendous. The plot was pathetic and non-original and the acting was painful to watch. As a matter of fact, I did not realize this was even Val Kilmer, that is how horrible it was.After we finished watching this atrocity, I looked it up on IMDb because I wanted to know who the actress was; she was just so unbearable and unable to perform her lines in a believable manner, I was convinced she was some 'unknown' that they got for cheap to go along with this low budget, below B movie. I was shocked to find out it was Elizabeth Shue...who, in my opinion, still cannot act her way out of a cracker jack box This movie was horrible. Painfully, banefully horrible! It should be burned from all archives and never spoken of again.I'd have given it a -10 (negative) if it would have been allowable...wouldn't even let me rate it a 0. It doesn't even deserve a 1. It was just that pathetic. If you value your eyes, ears and stomach...don't watch this thing