Dom Robinson reviews

Distributed by

Paramount

Cert:

Cat.no: PHE 8030

Running time: 111 minutes

Year: 1997

Pressing: 2000

Region(s): 2, PAL

Chapters: 21 plus extras

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Surround

Languages: 3 languages available

Subtitles: 12 languages available

Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Panavision)

16:9-Enhanced: Yes

Macrovision: Yes

Disc Format: DVD 9

Price: £19.99

Extras: Theatrical Trailer, Director's Commentary

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Director:

Philip Noyce (Clear And Present Danger, Patriot Games, The Saint, Sliver)

Producers:

David Brown, Robert Evans, William J. MacDonald and Mace Neufield

Screenplay:

Jonathan Hensleigh (Die Hard With a Vengeance) and Wesley Strick (Cape Fear (1991))

Music:

Graeme Revell (The Crow, Hard Target)

Soundtrack includes:

• David Bowie - Dead Man Walking
• Daft Punk - Da Funk
• Sneaker Pimps - 6 Underground
• Chemical Brothers featuring Noel Gallagher - Setting Sun
• Underworld - Pearl's Girl
• Everything But The Girl - Before Today
• Orbital - The Saint
• Duran Duran - Out Of My Mind

Cast:

Simon Templar: Val Kilmer
Dr. Emma Russell: Elisabeth Shue
Ivan Tretiak: Rade Serbedzija
Ilya Tretiak: Valery Nikolaev
Chief Inspector Teal: Alun Armstrong
...and the voice of Roger Moore

The Saint is the big-screen version of the television series starring Val Kilmer in the role first taken in the 60's with Roger Moore as the man of mystery - and was revived in the 70's with Ian Ogilvy in "Return of the Saint".

The story centres around a cold-fusion reactor developed by Dr. Emma Russell (Elisabeth Shue) which can provide many uses including allowing a car to drive for 55 million miles on just one gallon of fuel. Naturally, there are some other interested parties such as the head of Russia's oil and gas corporation Ivan Tretiak (Rade Serbedzija) and he'll do everything he can to get it by sending out his henchmen to do the dirty work.

In order to avoid capture by Tretiak's men or the police, Simon Templar must change disguises many times. This also enables him to get information about Emma's device but how can he control his feelings for her once he begins to fall in love?

Val Kilmer has had his share of good roles throughout his career, namely as Jim Morrison in The Doors, the ghost of Elvis in True Romance and other roles in Top Secret and Heat. However, his performance in The Saint cannot be counted in that list at all. With each new disguise he doesn't increase the depths and complexity of his characters as scriptwriter Jonathan Hensleigh would have us believe - he just looks more and more like Val Kilmer (!)

Elisabeth Shue has never been one of my favourite actresses, usually plumping for the token bimbo role - and her performance as a nuclear scientist fails to convince, especially following on from her appearances in Cocktail, The Karate Kid, Soapdish and the last two installments of the Back To The Future trilogy.

One wonders why Alun Armstrong signed up for this film as his role comprises of a brief scene early on and a few lines during the last five minutes.

The picture and sound quality are first rate on this disc. The colours are bright and the detail very crisp. The 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen presentation is essential for Phillip Noyce's films as he always shoots in Panavision and anything less than the full width completely ruins the presentation - one wonders why the PAL Laserdisc of Sliver was around 2.00:1. The average bitrate is fairly steady 7.69Mb/s.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound (English and German) also delivers whether it's in the action scenes, directional effects or the excellent soundtrack with tracks from David Bowie, Sneaker Pimps, Orbital and Duran Duran. The Czechs get Dolby Surround only.

Extras :

The disc could do with another 10-15 chapters as there's only 21 spread throughout the 2-hour film, with one at the end for trailers of Mission: Impossible and The Ghost And The Darkness.

Subtitles are available in English (and hard of hearing), Arabic, Bulgarian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish and Turkish.

The disc also contains a basic static and silent menu with a shot of the front cover and the usual options.

Overall, this is a film which goes from scene to scene with new disguises for Kilmer and new gadgets for him to fool the bad guys with. Unfortunately, while the quality of the disc is flawless, the soundtrack superb - and the Russian locations captivating, the film recorded on it fails to excite, intrigue or gain any interest from the viewer. Part of this blame might be attributed to a re-shot ending after the original ending, in which Elisabeth Shue's character was murdered, faired badly in test audiences. I'd have considered that a bonus.

FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS
OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.

DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.

PC games reviewed by the editor are on: