Trust me when I say that this movie looked a lot better in the commercials than it actually was. I have never seen a full episode of the TV series it was based upon, but I entered the theater with all I needed to know about the original character. He goes by the name Simon Templar, although this isn't his real name. We are not sure what is his real name, but he always travels incognito, using a phony name that matches up with an appropriate catholic saint. The Saint is a professional thief who apparently works for no particular government, but tends to steal from bad people in order to help good people.

The film tries to have a similar feeling of a Bond picture (which seems funny since I've read that the Bond books were imitations of the much earlier Saint books) by trying to mix action scenes, neat gadgets, romance, and great stunts, all in the context of a political thriller. Unfortunately this film fails in almost all of the above categories.

To start with what works, Val Kilmer seems perfect for the part. Considering his past movie career where he has drastically changed his appearance for each film, I felt he would be convincing as a master of disguises. He did do it convincingly, since makeup alone cannot succeed. His superb acting skills also is shown when he tries to become the 'man of her dreams' to Elizabeth Shue, but more on that later.

Another good thing in the film were the opening scenes. Not great, but pretty good. We see part of the origin of the Saint where he is at a catholic school for bastard children who were all given the names of Saints in order to help lead them onto the right path. We see the Saint as a child renounce his given name, and reading about the Knights of the Templar (whom anyone who has read Umberto Eco should be familiar with). When he refuses his saintly name the whole school is punished, and we are introduced to the Saint's skills at pickpocketing, lockpicking and general thievery. A little less clear is the Saint's apparent guilt over his involvement over a non-explained childhood romance that leads to an accidental death.

Another aspect of the film that works for me are the villains. We really don't see that much of them, but impressively these were actually ORIGINAL villains. To emphasize this, I mean that these were villains that I haven't seen before. I almost didn't recognize them as villains since they weren't necessarily dressed that well, and didn't have English accents. Continuing the Bond tradition, they were Russian, rich and politically connected. Also, the younger son was an adept fighter (apparently better than the hero, which is also unusual to see), and ruthless, instead of the standard evil prodigy who is trying to make himself better than his father etc. The father was also ruthless, but also seemed to give personal attention to what he did instead of just sending out flunkies to do his bidding. All around, they were original and a welcome sight in a movie that didn't have that much original going for it.

What worked the best in the film was the romance. This may be because I have always been a big fan of Elisabeth Shue (way back from "Karate Kid" and whose earlier career later peaked in the under-rated "Adventures in Baby Sitting"). But as good as she was, Kilmer had the harder role and he did it perfectly. We see him break into her apartment, and search for clues about her ideal man. This was a very odd scene because we are privy to what he (and she) is thinking, and we are rooting for him to seduce her so that he can steal from her. These were some very well done scenes, and I was impressed at how well he pulls it off. Elizabeth Shue had to pretend to be an introverted lonely 'pure thinking' woman, and she didn't do it any better than Sandra Bullock tried and failed to do in "The Net". However, once we get past this, Elisabeth Shue does a wonderful job showing us how she allows herself to give into this man of her dreams, and fall in love. She also did a wonderful job at the climax of the film showing us that she was in love with the Saint, and seems giddy at just seeing him again.

Now to get into all the things that didn't work. It tried to be a Bond movie, but was nowhere as good. The action scenes were listless. There were many scenes of the Saint running from trouble, and we never really felt that he was in danger. The political thriller portions were confusing and lacking any sense of cleverness. The first (of many) endings had a very unreal scene with many Russian citizens standing around Red Square watching an experiment with 'Cold Fusion'. The Science and the special effects didn't make sense here. Also, wouldn't you flee for your life if someone said they were performing an experiment with Fusion about 20 feet in front of you?

There were many other inexplicable scenes in the film. One scene had the characters running through the sewers and they get confused with American Art buyers? Later in the film the head Russian Art smuggler shows up at one of the Saint's hidden apartments to help him some more!? This was not the only very implausible stuff. Another odd scene was where Elisabeth Shue suddenly realizes that she doesn't need her heart medicine anymore? I guess all the excitement kick-started her heart into a higher gear!?

The movie had about three endings, and none of them really worked very well. The movie definitely should've finished about 10 minutes sooner. One friend described the final ending as reminiscent of one of the old Mentos Commercials. I would have to unfortunately agree with this. The movie changes tone so much throughout, that no ending could have properly ended it. Instead, each minute it lingered on only served to knock it down another notch!

Unfortunately for all its good points, the movie left me with a very unsatisfying feeling overall.

Laserdisc / DVD Commentary:
The commentary track is a wonderful blend of behind the scene incidents and lessons about how the film was made. The director, Phillip Noyce, goes into great detail about what he was trying to do, what he did do, and what he failed to do. This is a very entertaining commentary track.

Note that on my own review page I only gave this film 2½ stars.
This review was originally written on 4/12/97.



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older