A Masterpiece!

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

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

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 is not really a "The Saint" movie as far as I am concerned. It has very little resemblance to the Simon Templar that we got to know in the TV-series starring Roger Moore in the lead role. I have not read the books so I do not know how well the movie actually relates to the books but I have to say that I was a little disappointed to see a Simon Templar that was not really…him.I have never really been a huge fan of Val Kilmer and I do not really think he is the best match for the role. But then, as I wrote, I really do not see this as a Simon Templar movie anyway so. Elisabeth Shue is totally unbelievable as a scientist. I know they had to pick someone reasonably good-looking to satisfy the script but still, she just doesn't cut it as a scientist. The Russians are giving a much better performance. I quite liked both the Tretiak characters.That is not to say that this is a bad movie though. You just have to forget about the references to The Saint and Simon Templar. The latter is not very difficult since he really do not call himself Simon Templar in most of the movie anyway. What this movie is though is a fairly decent light entertainment about a skilled high stakes thief with a troubled childhood. I say light entertainment because the plot is really not much more than you would expect from a TV-series pilot. There are some fun action, some fun infiltration, disguises, a bit of high-tech etc. Just a mixture of some "fun stuff" making you go "okay that was not too bad" at the end of the movie.Oh, one more thing, I know that Simon Templar used to drive a Volvo P1800 but quite frankly, that was the only cool car that Volvo have ever made. Since the movie was so far from what I consider to be Simon Templar it is a real bummer that they had to choose that modern Volvo crap for him to drive.

The Saint is a pleasantly surprising film. A lot different from the Roger Moore TV series, it sort of follows the Brosnan Bonds in being a stylish actioner with a slightly absurd plot. Yet it's a very entertaining film with many great things about it. The plot involves Simon Templar who is a master a thief, being able to outsmart the law with unique disguises and accents. He is hired by the Russian Mafia to steal a formula for cold fusion energy from scientist Emma Russell. But Russell intelligence and beauty makes Templar begin to develop feelings for her that he can't walk away from. He decides to help her and must work out the formula before the Russians do. Though the plot is a bit silly, it is actually pretty smart in many places and it never becomes boring. As said it works like one of the more far-fetched Bond films in that it is rather suspect but it doesn't really matter because it is so entertaining, whilst the romantic side keeps things nicely grounded.The cast is impressive. Val Kilmer is terrific as Templar managing to play the smart spy who finds his softer side and he has the charisma to carry it off. Kilmer does a brilliant job at doing different accents and changing appearance too. Elisabeth Shue is excellent as Emma Russell, making her likable and tough but with complexity and issues. Rade Serbedzija makes an effect villain as the slimy and power hungry Tretiak. Valeriy Nikolaev was a little dull as his son, but still believable and did well in the action set pieces. The British veteran Michael Byrne was fantastic as always as Tretiak's adviser. Both Alun Armstrong and Charlotte Cornwell did solid jobs as inspectors on Templar's trail. Though the plot is iffy, nearly everything else is done quite competently. The visual tone that the film goes for is very stylish, the scenes of Russia and Britain look fantastic. The action scenes are also done in a great way, though it doesn't happen too often when it does it is nicely effective. The music is simply superb, the score by Graeme Revell has a cool action tone to it but is also very beautiful, the main theme and 'Love Theme' are both superb. The use of more contemporary music at times was also a smart decision. The most effective thing about the film is the relationship between Templar and Russell. Val Kilmer and Elisabeth Shue have amazing chemistry as a lot of the time you can easily forget they are acting it's so natural. This side of the story helps make it far more interesting that your average action film because you actually care about what these people go through. It's also nice that there's not an overload of action, as the film does a good job of letting the drama tell the story. Overall The Saint offers a refreshing balance of drama, action and character development.