The Saint (1997)
30 %
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
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 effective disguises, to obtain things for people which they can not obtain themselves. When he is hired... [More]
Genre: Action/Adventure
Starring: Val Kilmer, Elisabeth Shue, Rade Serbedzija, Valeri Nikolayev, Henry Goodman
Director: Phillip Noyce
Composer: Graeme Revell
Story: Jonathan Hensleigh
Screenwriter: Jonathan Hensleigh, Wesley Strick
Producer: David Brown, Robert Evans, William J. MacDonald, Mace Neufeld
Composer: Graeme Revell
Story: Jonathan Hensleigh
Screenwriter: Jonathan Hensleigh, Wesley Strick
Producer: David Brown, Robert Evans, William J. MacDonald, Mace Neufeld
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
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.
Comment
05/20/08
A generic suspenser that doesn't taste bad at first bite but becomes increasingly hard to swallow.
05/20/08
Top Critic
There's no lack of style or pace from Noyce, just the sense that it isn't quite gelling together.
05/20/08
The glossy photography is stunning and Kilmer's implausible accents are fun.
05/20/08
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.
05/20/08
Top Critic
There was enough in the movie for me to watch and somewhat enjoy it the whole way through.
08/18/06
What could have been a cool concept movie buckles under an uninspired script and some treacherous miscasting.
12/06/05
Top Critic
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.
01/29/05
The film works, thanks to Noyce's skill in creating suspense and staging elaborate action scenes.
05/22/03
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.
05/14/03
The story that screenwriters Jonathan Hensleigh and Robert S. Baker have concocted keeps bogging down in silly contradictions or cliches.
10/15/02
Reinvention in the hands of Hollywood is seldom cause for celebration.
06/26/02
Top Critic
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.
06/18/02
Top Critic
The script is a mixed bag of elaborate and unnecessary pseudo-politics, intriguing ideas and mostly confusing rehashed romantic mishmash.
06/05/02
Related Forums
Leslie Charteris
by: Gimblebrox 6/29/04
by: Gimblebrox 6/29/04
IGN RSS Feeds