I loved this film as a child. Val Kilmer is hamming it up as this odd character that uses the weirdest accents and wigs throughout the film. Re-watching this film, I've discovered that the South African can character he creates to seduce the female lead is... cringeworthy yet hilarious.

Also cracking me up is the son of the villain Tretiak. The pony tailed, cane wielding minion has this amazing sixth sense to make the most outlandish "leaps of observation" to find Kilmer. This greasy bloodhound blankly looks around and can in any situation immediately find where Kilmer has gone.

Oddly enough some scenes seem to also have been shot with a green screen during reshoots. Simple shots like two people speaking in a doorway are superimposed on a Moscow background. This only adds to the love I have for this weird and sloppy film that I continue to return to.

I'm a massive fan of all things Saintly. I have read all the Saint books, I own and have seen all the old RKO Saint movies from the 30's, 40's and 50's with Louis Hayward, George Sanders and Hugh Sinclair and own all the TV episodes from the 60's & 70's with Roger Moore & Ian Ogilvy. Only a few Saint items elude me. The very hard to find Simon Dutton Saint adventures from the late 80's, the Andrew Clarke one off TV Movie from 1987, the old radio shows from he 40's and 50's and the forgettable French movies of the 60's.

Because of this, I was very wary about the Val Kilmer movie featuring the halo'd character of Simon Templar despite having Saint legend Robert S. Baker as executive producer. My fears were not without foundation.

The character of Simon Templar as originally written by creator Leslie Charteris is an English Gentleman adventurer thief, he is known by reputation as a criminal with morals. He despises injustice, never preys on the innocent and only steals from people he refers to as the ungodly who have made their ill gotten gains by riding rough shod over anyone and everything. In this movie we have an American Templar (1st mistake), who commits high tech robberies for extremely large sums on behalf of people who are morally bankrupt (2nd mistake). In fact Kilmer's portrayal of Simon Templar is as far removed from Charteris's creation and the character portrayed so well by Moore, Ogilvy and Sanders you cannot even recognise him as being the same person.

Having said that it was SO easy to forget that this was even a Saint movie. As far as I'm concerned it was just a wonderful exciting movie about an American cyber criminal on the run from the Russian Mafia who falls in love with an American physicist. The action is gripping the plot engaging and the acting superb, apart from a few VERY sickly scenes between Kilmer and Shue. I'm all for romance between characters but......

I did enjoy it but apart from the title it is in no way, shape or form, a Saint Movie. That was the producers 3rd and biggest mistake. By calling it a Saint movie, they were already on the back foot as expectations were no doubt going to be high especially from die hard Saint fans like myself. Making the Saint an American is a BIG no no. having the Saint happily work for criminals is another.

If they had removed all reference to The Saint character from the story, I could be easily reviewing one of the best movies of the '90's. Kilmer's Character was more akin to Ethan Hunt than anything you would ever find in a Charteris book. However, Elizabeth Shue is GORGEOUS and I really did enjoy this movie very much for what it was. If you can forget it's a supposed to be a Saint movie then I'm sure you will too.

Enjoy!!!