I watched this on TV out of nostalgic remembrance of the classic TV Saint series with Roger Moore which I grew up with in the 1960s. Not expecting similarity but hoping for some swashbuckling action in Simon Templar style, I was not disappointed. A thoroughly enjoyable Saturday evening viewing with a stylish Val Kilmer (an actor I'm not familiar with) who combined the Templar characteristics with James Bond finesse very well, and a cute Elizabeth Shue playing her part in the manner of the unlikely earlier Saint female leads (I've never seen a mini-skirted, sexy blonde scientific genius in all my years spent in Oxford!) but adding her own feisty zest to the proceedings.
I particularly liked tongue-in-cheek references such as the repeat use of the first bars of the original Saint theme tune interrupting the background music, and the stick-pin Emma produces at the end which mimics the original Saint logo, and the voice of Roger Moore on the final voice-over car radio. I also liked the device of imagining a childhood background for Simon Templar. The original character (and I have read all the books) has a suitably hazy and enigmatic past of which his readers as well as the other characters (including his girlfriend Pat and sidekick Hoppy Uniatz) know nothing about. Adam Smith made an angelic young Simon and the orphanage setting was highly appropriate.
Altogether an under-rated movie.
I particularly liked tongue-in-cheek references such as the repeat use of the first bars of the original Saint theme tune interrupting the background music, and the stick-pin Emma produces at the end which mimics the original Saint logo, and the voice of Roger Moore on the final voice-over car radio. I also liked the device of imagining a childhood background for Simon Templar. The original character (and I have read all the books) has a suitably hazy and enigmatic past of which his readers as well as the other characters (including his girlfriend Pat and sidekick Hoppy Uniatz) know nothing about. Adam Smith made an angelic young Simon and the orphanage setting was highly appropriate.
Altogether an under-rated movie.
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