The Saint
(1997)
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Based on the popular television series of the same name, THE SAINT finds Val Kilmer taking over the mantle from George Sanders and Roger Moore to star as Simon Templar, the suave international espionage expert and man of 1,000 faces. Based on Leslie Charteris's popular series of spy novels, the film finds Templar being hired by the Russian mafia to swipe a formula for cold fusion from the professor who discovered it. Templar's assignment gets complicated when the professor turns out to be the fetching Dr. Emma Russell (Elizabeth Shue), with whom he promptly falls in love, putting him on his Russian retainer's bad side. Soon the Russians are closing in on he and his new love, and Templar must keep them from both killing the professor and getting their hands on the formula. |
This empty, lumbering spectacular turns author Leslie Charteris's gallant law-breaker into a cat-burgling James Bond clone. Both Val Kilmer, in the title role, and Elisabeth Shue are miscast in a mundane tale about a Russian billionaire who's trying to discover a way to glean energy from tap water. Scientist Shue has the “cold fusion” formula stuffed into her bra and practically the whole of director Phillip Noyce's misjudged fiasco has her and Kilmer being chased by the Russian Mafia. It's sloppily plotted, unexciting and laughable — Kilmer plays the debonair Templar as a cross between Inspector Clouseau and Leslie Phillips — and any episode of the 1960s TV series starring Roger Moore (who pops up as the voice of a newsreader over the end credits) would be infinitely superior to this expensive farrago.