NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

pholmes-1 Val Kilmer wears a series of dime store fake identities (I almost expected him to show up in a Groucho Marx mustache-and-cigar disguise) and demonstrates the inability to master any of a dozen different accents in his portrayal of Simon Templar.Elisabeth Shue is equally unconvincing as a scientist (!) who has made cold fusion work and whose palpable lack of chemistry with Kilmer kills the tiresome romantic subplot dead in its tracks. The usually excellent Rade Serbedzija is a generic but uninteresting villain.Throw in a script entirely lacking in clever twists or believable dialogue, unimaginative direction from journeyman Philip Noyce, and seriously under-developed secondary characters and it's easy to see why this mediocre movie utterly failed to launch what fans of the TV show must have hoped would be a franchise.

Veronika Vykoukalova 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.

zardoz-13 The cliffhanger escapes, the dastardly villains, and the superbly staged action scenes in "The Saint" are good enough to compensate for the poor casting, slipshod writing, and last-minute script alterations that plague this hagiography. Val Kilmer, fresh from the respectable "Ghost and the Darkness" and the lukewarm "Island of Dr. Moreau," steps into the role of the suave, debonair gentleman adventurer. Kilmer makes the most of the multi-dimensional role. The Leslie Charteris literary hero is a cat burglar, escape artist, gigolo, electronics wizard, man of a thousand faces, and confidence man who survives by the skin of his wits. Although this glossy, $70-million-plus epic is a dazzling looking romantic thriller, "The Saint" sinks if you think too much about its hi-jinks."The Saint" is a kind of freelance 007. Since he escaped from an abusive Catholic school in the Far East at age five, Simon Templar has been amassing a fortune. Templar refuses to retired until his bank account tops $50-million. Lately, the Saint has been sparring with Ivan Tretiak (Rade Serberdzija of "Manifesto"), a long-haired Russian tycoon who runs the mafia in Moscow. A shortage of heating fuel has crippled Mother Russia in the dead of winter. Hundreds are freezing. Ivan wants to parlay the heating crisis into a way to topple Russian president Karpov (Eugeny Lazarev of "The Ice Runner"). As it turns out, an astute American scientist, Dr. Emma Russell (Elizabeth Shue of "Adventures in Babysitting") has devised a formula for something called cold fusion that can save Russians and help Tretiak make more marks in Russians eyes than Lenin. Tretiak turns to the Saint to steal the secret formula from Emma.Australian director Philip Noyce spent his last two assignments putting Harrison Ford through the paces of "Patriot Games" and "A Clear and Present Danger." "Die Hard with a Vengeance" scribe Jonathan Hensleigh co-scripted "The Saint" with "Cape Fear" writer Wesley Strick. Despite their considerable talent and imagination, they faltered in their efforts to fit the character into the 1990s. For the record, Charteris wrote 90 original Saint Novels beginning with "Meet the Tiger" (1928) and ending with "Salvage for the Saint" (1983).When we first spot him, the Saint is getting flogged by a priest because he won't conform. The child rebels and escapes from the school, but not before he causes the death of his childhood sweetheart. Kilmer's Simon Templar has a politically correct dark side because he feels guilty about the girl's accidental death. Incidentally, "The Saint" is a chick flick. Val bares his chest, but Elizabeth Shue doesn't. While "The Saint contains Indiana Jones-style derring-do, the film never drenches itself in blood, gore, nudity, or profanity. You don't have to shield your eyes from anything offensive. "The Saint" amounts to a one-man "Mission Impossible" with the emphasis on serio-comic romance and danger. Eventually, the Saint and the scientist team up to take on the bad guys. The Russian winters appear picture postcard perfect as captured by lenser Phil Meheux, and "The Saint" makes splendid use of Red Square and other notable sights. And it's not Kilmer's Saint who gives the Russians the formula for fire, but Shue's soft-hearted scientist.The problem here is that Shue is woefully miscast as a nerdy she-scientist. She is a great actress, but she just doesn't fit the role. "The Saint" asks us to believe that a babe like Shue could be a brilliant scientist. Actually, she would have been more credibly cast as the babe daughter of a brilliant scientist. More than likely Hensleigh and Strick have compressed two characters into one character. They then ask us to believe that a scientist as brilliant as she is would abandon her principles for Kilmer's pectorals. She confides in Simon that he never had to steal what she was willing to give away. This almost makes it all too easy for Simon. Oh, yes, how many brilliant scientists store their secret formulas on scrap pieces of paper in their brassiere? Finally, Hensleigh and Strick dream up a flaw for Shue's scientist; she suffers from heart disease. There is nothing wrong with a character who has flaws. They even feature a scene where the Saint nearly freezes to save her heart pills from floating down river. There is nothing wrong with that either. Except by the end of the movie, however, Shue's brilliant scientist no longer requires her heart medication. So why did they make such a big fuss about them in the first place? This is another sign that the writers have their halos on crooked.As heroes go, "The Saint" isn't so much a saint to cheer as a sultan to envy. Indeed, Kilmer's Cupid good-looks will seduce the ladies, but the guys will lust after his new candy-apple red Volvo C-70 coupe, his playboy lifestyle, padded bank account, and eternal ability to outsmart his foe. If there were ever a movie that sold itself on the charisma of its protagonist, "The Saint" does, with a pasha's price tag. Sadly, in terminating one "Saint" for a more venerable "Saint," the filmmakers have sold out not only a sound plot line but the character's literary heritage. If you looking for fast, breezy nonsense that look fantastic, "The Saint" is worth a peek.

meritcoba "You know, wearing that black suit and waving a big Japanese sword around does not make you the Saint.""Just play your part." Henry mumbled through the face cover waving his Katana around. He knew it was a Katana because he knew that kind of thing from the comics. Unlike Kristl who was illiterate because she had never read comics as far as he knew."And what part was that again?""You are the Russian lesbian who just caught me red handed while stealing a formula from your masters safe. It is the one that changes water into vodka. Just say something with that foreign accent of yours.""I don't play Russians very well. I am Austrian, that makes it a German accent, not a Russian one. And what is with the lesbian stuff all the time?" Kristl remarked."Well, your hair practically shouts lesbian." Henry said."What is with the hair? Why does it make me look lesbian?""It is shaved but for long hair on top and you painted it black and white, that hairstyle went out of fashion two decades ago. Only women pretending to be men would want to look like that." Henry said."I hate you!" Krisl fumed."Good, you can play the bad ass Russian better." Henry smiled and crouched in a fighting stance.Kristl face palmed and then said,"You are Simon Templar. An English gentleman thief. He never uses swords like that! Perhaps a saber or a cane, but not a weapon like that. Something stylish and English. You know: Roger Moore? Gentleman, under cooled humor, stiff upper lip, Rolls Royce.?""Yeah, yeah. Get on with it.""Oh god, you just don't look at all like him, nor speak like him, nor have the same humor, nor have the style. You are so not Simon Templar." Kristl groaned, "Just like Val Kilmer?" Henry said."Yeah, just like him." Kristl."Well, it would have not mattered to me, but it's not even an exciting movie." Henry put down the sword and removed his mask to reveal a grin."The action sequences are plain boring. People shooting at him seem to miss even at point blank.""It's pretty bad on any level." Kristl,"The whole romantic bit is so cringe worthy. And how the Russians are portrayed like a bunch of money grabbers. It was probably meant to be funny.""You know that they considered having Kurt Russell play James Bond at the time?""Oh? You mean Kurt -Snake Plissken- Russell? " Said Kristl."The grumpy anti hero from Escape From New York?" Kristl considered that for a minute."It is a joke." Henry laughed."He would have made a better Bond that Kilmer makes a Saint" Kristl said."It wasn't Kurt Russell they considered, it was Mel Gibson."