Film Review - Saint, The

Action, action, action. That's The Saint. It's the story of how young Simon Templar bolts from the abuse of an orphanage and becomes a master thief who always uses the cover of Catholic saints.

Simon is an independent who will work for anyone. His big goal in life is to accumulate $50 million in his Swiss bank account. He ends up working for people from whom he has previously stolen.

Simon steals the formula for cold fusion from Dr. Emma Russell (Elisabeth Shue). Shue is not convincing as a scientist. She doesn't embody a person who has spent hundreds of hours thinking over a single problem. Simon and Emma fall in love, and Simon ends up betraying his new employers. Unfortunately, in his line of work, there's not much of a health program.

The trick is to catch Simon. He also happens to be a master of disguise, and he can do costume changes in the blink of an eye. Backing him up are lots of Batman-like gadgets and, of course, an Apple Powerbook with wireless T-3 speed to the Internet with really fast encryption routines. You really have to suspend reality for the sake of the technology. None of this works, because there's no back-up team of people acting as the supply lines. Even James Bond has that white-haired old guy building missile launchers into his condoms.

What saves this movie are the bad guys. It's very clear we want to hate these people, so it's oK that Simon is amoral. He's nicer than they are, but not by much.

Jammed Pipe!

Film Facts

Directed by Phillip Noyce

Released in 1997

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Reviewed by Mongo