That was an excellent one.

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

The Saint (1997): Dir: Phillip Noyce / Cast: Val Kilmer, Elisabeth Shue, Rade Serbedzija, Henry Goodman: What kind of saint is this? Val Kilmer plays a disguise expert in a heating oil shortage in Russia where he is hired to steal Elisabeth Shue's work formula. They fall in love, which contract problems when he cannot steal from her. Kilmer does what he can with a role of virtually no feeling or emotion. Basically he is as concealed as his character is when donning a mask. The romance between Kilmer and Shue is an unnecessary distraction. Shue is basically there for a scene where she heats him up when he is freezing cold. Then they are off and running in subsequent chase scenes. Director Phillip Noyce is backed by fine production but no story. He previously directed Dead Calm, and had to be after directing this high budget geek show. Rade Serbedzija plays a typical villain with nothing to do other than to cause plot contrivances. There are too many endings and not one none of them good except perhaps the closing credits. Rather than be about identity, it is hyped up with special effects and a lot of mayhem and loud noise. Hopefully some of that noise will be the garbage truck should be the final resting place for this foolishness. Score: 2 / 10

Val Kilmer plays a mysterious thief who has great skills including as a master of disguise. Ivan Tretiak hires him to steal the formula for cold fusion from American scientist Emma Russel (Elisabeth Shue).This is sort of like a Bond movie if James Bond put on ugly disguises in silly voices and steals for himself. The disguises look too silly. It diminishes the attempt to be cool and relevant. Instead of silly disguises, it should really concentrate on the spy tradecrafts. Val Kilmer does an internal dialog which could be better used to highlight his skills. The other problem is that there are too much Russian in this. I don't understand why Russia would have a heating oil crisis. It tries to be exotic, but ends up as unsatisfying.There is also the minor problem of Elisabeth Shue. She's supposed to be this weird loner scientist, and she doesn't have that persona. And she plays it as a love sick puppy to one of Val Kilmer's fake character. She is the all American girl next door, and they need a quirky scientist type. And the point is to get somebody else to replicate her results which means she's supposed to write out the experiment for them to try. It's a stupid idea that she would write out the formula and stuff it in her bra. I want to like this for Elisabeth Shue, but this is too silly.

The plot of this movie is quite similar to Chain Reaction, but the way it comes about is quite different. Both are movies about the discovery of free energy and powerful people trying to get their hands upon it. The difference with the Saint is that the Saint, or Simon Templar (Val Kilmer) is a thief. He angers a very powerful Russian after stealing a microchip and is then set up by him to steal the plans for a cold fusion reactor.There are numerous intricacies in this plot, namely the motivations behind the Russian Millionaire. There is a shortage of oil in Russia which means it is very cold in Moscow and their is now heating. The millionaire is attempting to gain control of Russia and is stirring the people up against the current government.This is an interesting turn of events in the plot lines. Previously it was the evil Russians communists whose plans to take over the world had to be foiled by the good guy. Now that communism has collapsed, there is no longer any powerful bad guy to send the good guys up against. Now it has to be the evil corporations and the evil Russians who are trying to restore communist rule to Russia. Where as before one could not destroy communism and Russia, now it is possible to bring a conclusive ending to the movie.The beginning of the Saint is set in an orphanage in the Far East. It is hard to tell if there is any relevance in this beginning. Its shows us that the Saint was an orphan and that he doesn't have a really name. In fact he shuns the name given to him by the priest. He then watches his girl friend plunge to her death after she is attacked by the dog. What it does not show is if he is blamed for the death or not. What this beginning does not is really make one hate the Catholic orphanage system with the way they abuse the children.The Saint is okay as an action movie. The good guy wins and gets the girl in the end. The girl is no ordinary woman though. She is a scientist but when she first meets the Saint she sees right through his disguise and into his heart. This is what captivates him. He doesn't even want to steal the plans from her, but later his greed overwhelms him and he takes the money. It is fun to watch but that is all.

This movie was horrendous. The plot was pathetic and non-original and the acting was painful to watch. As a matter of fact, I did not realize this was even Val Kilmer, that is how horrible it was.After we finished watching this atrocity, I looked it up on IMDb because I wanted to know who the actress was; she was just so unbearable and unable to perform her lines in a believable manner, I was convinced she was some 'unknown' that they got for cheap to go along with this low budget, below B movie. I was shocked to find out it was Elizabeth Shue...who, in my opinion, still cannot act her way out of a cracker jack box This movie was horrible. Painfully, banefully horrible! It should be burned from all archives and never spoken of again.I'd have given it a -10 (negative) if it would have been allowable...wouldn't even let me rate it a 0. It doesn't even deserve a 1. It was just that pathetic. If you value your eyes, ears and stomach...don't watch this thing