The Saint is a Robin Hood type criminal character devised by Leslie Charteris a Chinese Singaporean. The Saint had a series of short films in the 1940s however made it big when Roger Moore portrayed him for a television series in the 1960s that became an international hit.
In this big budget film starring Val Kilmer we have an attempt to re- invent the character. As a homage to Charteris we have scenes of him as a boy in a Catholic boarding school in the Far East. In the present day he is a criminal for hire who steals secrets and formulas and uses aliases that are Catholic Saints and is a master of disguise.
The Saint is hired by a Russian businessman and aspiring politician to get a secret cold fusion formula from a young scientist played by Elisabeth Shue. You never for a moment buy Shue as a brilliant scientist and Kilmer falls for her and finds out that he needs to outwit the Russians and save the Russian Premiere as well as saving Shue.
The story is all over the place and Shue's gut feeling that her formula is right without any scientific basis is laughable. There is good chemistry between Kilmer and Shue but the film itself is up and down in tempo and Kilmer never behaves like The Saint we know from the TV series.
Ultimately Kilmer seems to be enjoying himself trying different accents but he never comes across The Saint which is the film's biggest failing.
In this big budget film starring Val Kilmer we have an attempt to re- invent the character. As a homage to Charteris we have scenes of him as a boy in a Catholic boarding school in the Far East. In the present day he is a criminal for hire who steals secrets and formulas and uses aliases that are Catholic Saints and is a master of disguise.
The Saint is hired by a Russian businessman and aspiring politician to get a secret cold fusion formula from a young scientist played by Elisabeth Shue. You never for a moment buy Shue as a brilliant scientist and Kilmer falls for her and finds out that he needs to outwit the Russians and save the Russian Premiere as well as saving Shue.
The story is all over the place and Shue's gut feeling that her formula is right without any scientific basis is laughable. There is good chemistry between Kilmer and Shue but the film itself is up and down in tempo and Kilmer never behaves like The Saint we know from the TV series.
Ultimately Kilmer seems to be enjoying himself trying different accents but he never comes across The Saint which is the film's biggest failing.