The Saint * (1997, Val Kilmer, Elisabeth Shue, Rade Serbedzija, Alun Armstrong) – 2015 Classic Movie Review 3229

‘Never reveal your name. Never turn your back. Never surrender your heart.’

Val Kilmer is totally miscast as Simon Templar in director Phillip Noyce‘s misbegotten 1997 cinema attempt to revive The Saint. It co-stars Elisabeth Shue as scientist Dr Emma Russell, Rade Serbedzija as Ivan Tretiak and Alun Armstrong as Chief Inspector Teal.

A forlorn, desperate movie, it is slackly written by written by Jonathan Hensleigh and Wesley Strick and languidly and listlessly directed by Noyce. The film, however, was a limited success at the box office, with a worldwide take of $169.4 million, rentals of $28.2 million, and continuing DVD sales.

However, it cost $68 million and took only a disappointing $61 million at the US box office. In a critical career moment, Kilmer made the mistake of refusing to return to the Batman franchise after the box office smash Batman Forever (1995) to star in this film, upsetting director Joel Schumacher.

Betraying the original material, they have turned it into an espionage thriller, with title character now a successful high tech thief and master of disguise who becomes the anti-hero while using the pseudonyms of various Catholic saints while living in international industrial theft underworld.

This is why he is called The Saint, for his use of creating false identities using the names of saints. How mundane is that? Simon Templar is not even his real name. How annoying is that? The pseudonyms are all the given names of actual saints, incidentally.

The plot has Templar hired by the Russian Mafia to steal a cold fusion energy formula from Emma Russell, whom he falls for, so he swaps sides and takes on the Russian Mafia to try to save the world, or America anyway.

Owing more to the movie of Mission: Impossible (1996) than the work of Leslie Charteris, this just does not work, by the way. It lacks charm and smooth, suave sophistication. They did not trust the source material, so why do it all?

It is rated PG-13 for action violence, brief strong language, some sensuality and drug content. ‘Out of My Mind’ is performed by Duran Duran.

In the cinema, The Saint character is famous for RKO’s series of eight Hollywood and UK movies made between 1938 and 1941, starting with The Saint in New York (1938, starring Louis Hayward) and The Saint Strikes Back (1939, starring George Sanders).

Roger Moore never played the role again after his hit TV show of 1962-1969, though he can be heard speaking on a car radio during the 1997 film The Saint.

In November 2018, it was announced that Chris Pratt is in early talks for a reboot of The Saint, last made with Val Kilmer in 1997.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3229

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