The Saint

Reviewed by: Joe Blenkle

Rating:

Cast: Val Kilmer, Elisabeth Shue and Rabe Serbedzija

Studio: Paramount Pictures

Producer: David Brown and Robert Evans

Director: Phillip Noyce

Screenplay: Jonathan Hensleigh and Wesley Strick

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Release Date: Apr. 4, 1997

Running Time: 117 Minutes

	THE SAINT picture by Stephen Morley (c) 1997 Paramount Pictures, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

    Take a little James Bond and mix it with a liberal dose of Mission: Impossible and you'll have an excellent idea of what The Saint is all about.
     In this movie based on the popular stories dating back to 1928 and the radio and TV series' of the same name, Val Kilmer takes on the role of Simon Templar, a master thief and man of many faces.
     Unfortunately, unlike Tom Cruise in the recent MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE film and Sean Connery, Roger Moore and the rest of the Bond crew, Kilmer's acting is a little too forced for my tastes. For a man of many faces and accents in this film, Kilmer sounds and looks surprisingly the same in each of his guises -- certainly not different enough to fool the detectives of the New Scotland Yard who pursue him throughout the film - although they seemingly are continually baffled by his diguises.
     Even the members of the Russian Mafia can see through his disguises better than Scotland Yard making it a wonder that his character even survived this film!
     The story begins with Templar as a youth in a catholic orphange in the Far East. After refusing to acknoledge the name given to him, he leads an escape to the outside world where we next find him as an adult - with an unusual profession.
     Operating just outside the law, Templar has become a hi-tech thief, stealing industrial secrets, computer microchips, and other items of interest to people in power that earn him millions.
     While Scotland Yard pursues him, there is some question as to who exactly puts him up to these thefts - his employers may often be the very government agencies that hunt him.
     After being hired by a corrupt Russian billionaire who aspires to be president of that country, Templar may have finally met his match - not by the law, but by the person he is hired to steal from - Emma Russell (Elisabeth Shue), a brilliant scientist who has discovered the formula for cold fusion.
     Templar and Russell start out at odds, but eventually fall for each other and must contend with a life and death struggle against billionaire Ivan Tretiak (Rade Serbedzija) as he leads a revolution against the Russian government.
     Of course, good triumphs over evil in the end, and despite the acting shortcomings by Kilmer in this film, The Saint becomes an exciting action-adventure worthy of the best of the James Bond films or even Mission: Impossible.
     I hope there is another The Saint film, but if Kilmer returns in the lead role, I hope he drops his attempts of playing so many characters (he had over 12 different guises in the movie!) or refines his ability to do so. It got to the point where it was silly and detracted from the film. "The Saint" nickname, by the way, came from Templar's various characters - all of which he named after Saints of the Church. Even his own name came from a mixture of religious history - "Simon" from Simon Magus, the Biblical magician who attempted to buy the powers of the Holy Spirit, and "Templar" from an order of crusading warrior monks in the Middle Ages. Return to The Movie Corner