There's no lack of style or pace from Noyce, just the sense that it isn't quite gelling together.
The Saint (1997)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:44
Fresh:13
Rotten:31
Average Rating:4.6/10
Consensus: The Saint is watchable thanks to Kilmer and Shue, but the muddled screenplay stretches credulity.
Runtime: 1 hr 58 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Synopsis: Simon Templar (Val Kilmer), AKA The Saint, realizes his skill for trickery during his childhood in a Far East orphanage. He uses his natural born gifts, including a penchant for bizarre and... Simon Templar (Val Kilmer), AKA The Saint, realizes his skill for trickery during his childhood in a Far East orphanage. He uses his natural born gifts, including a penchant for bizarre and effective disguises, to obtain things for people which they can not obtain themselves. When he is hired by a Russian crime boss (Rade Serbedzija, BEFORE THE RAIN) to use his chameleon-like abilities to lift the secrets of cold fusion from Oxford-based scientist Emma Russell (Elizabeth Shue), he has little idea he might fall in love with his victim--or be double-crossed by his snakelike employer. Based on the character created by author Leslie Chateris, which spawned dozens of novels and a popular 1960s British television series starring Roger Moore. [More]
Starring: Val Kilmer, Elisabeth Shue, Rade Serbedzija, Valeri Nikolayev
Starring: Val Kilmer, Elisabeth Shue, Rade Serbedzija, Valeri Nikolayev, Henry Goodman, Alun Armstrong, Michael Byrne, Yevgeni Lazarev, Irina Apeximova, Lev Prygunov, Charlotte Cornwell, Emily Mortimer, Lucija Serbedzija, Velibor Topic, Tommy Flanagan Trio, Yegor Pozenko, Adam Smith, Pat Laffan, Verity Dearsley, Michael Marquez, Lorelei King, Alla A. Kazanskaya, Ronnie Letham, Tusse Silberg, Peter Guinness, Stefan Gryff, Malcolm Tierney, Stephen Tiller, Christopher Rozycki, Etela Pardo, Nikolai Veselov, David Schneider, Oxana Popkova, Agnieszka Liggett, Lidia Zovkic, Alexander Tiutin, Vadim Stepashkin, Ravil Issyanov, Alexander Kadanyov, Petar Vidovic, Susan Porrett, Cliff Parisi, Richard Cubison, Tony Armatrading, Benjamin Whitrow, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Kate Isitt, Barbara Jefford, Sean O'Kane, Roger Moore
Director: Phillip Noyce
Director: Phillip Noyce
Composer: Graeme Revell
Story: Jonathan Hensleigh
Screenwriter: Jonathan Hensleigh, Wesley Strick
Producer: David Brown, Robert Evans, William J. MacDonald, Mace Neufeld
Reviews for The Saint
The glossy photography is stunning and Kilmer's implausible accents are fun.
Kilmer slips in and out of a series of ludicrously elaborate disguises, some more convincing than others, while poor Shue shuffles through the role of a sexy, book-reading babe pretending to be a dowdy lady scientist in kneesocks.
A generic suspenser that doesn't taste bad at first bite but becomes increasingly hard to swallow.
This insufferable romance-adventure includes vague comedy as well as unintentional humor, and its target audience seems to be preadolescents who won't notice the calculated enthusiasm with which it sidesteps sexuality.
There was enough in the movie for me to watch and somewhat enjoy it the whole way through.
What could have been a cool concept movie buckles under an uninspired script and some treacherous miscasting.
Nothing in the film really makes any sense, and all the other characters seem buffoonish and arch, overplayed to the point of farce, more Matt Helm than James Bond.
The film works, thanks to Noyce's skill in creating suspense and staging elaborate action scenes.
The predictable action-thriller elements are all in place, from coke-sniffing, machine-gun-toting thugs to monotonous narrow escapes. The look is stylish, sound is above average, and the acting only as good as it has to be.
The story that screenwriters Jonathan Hensleigh and Robert S. Baker have concocted keeps bogging down in silly contradictions or cliches.
Reinvention in the hands of Hollywood is seldom cause for celebration.
There isn't a contemporary film actor more crafty than Val Kilmer -- or one who reveals less of his true self. That's why Kilmer is so perfectly cast as Simon Templar, the master thief and elusive disguise artist of The Saint.
The script is a mixed bag of elaborate and unnecessary pseudo-politics, intriguing ideas and mostly confusing rehashed romantic mishmash.
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