El Santo

It's quite frustrating to see a such a good movie idea as The Saint go to waste again and again since the original. Past that, this version is OK to watch if one has nothing else to watch, at a time when one MUST watch something... It has here and there some bits of good humor, action and acting ,but all in all it cannot shake off the B movie feel.

and if you can give them a giant leeway- perhaps they'd get better over the next year, you could enjoy this. But my God, the last scene, him hiding behind a tree just makes you groan! Can anything scream stupid more than that? I've only seen a few of the original TV show, listened to every dang old radio show- starring Vincent Price, but this is not the Saint. It's some spy dude. And it falls into the same traps every other US (and who knows maybe the world) TV show does, for example, you have a female computer expert, who is not the Saint hence not the star, and when the expert is flummoxed, you have to have the Saint, the star, give a suggestion that even a computer novice like me would know, and the computer expert says something like "Good idea, I didn't think of that." I mean it's really something stupid like "Did you turn it off then on again?" But then, every mystery show does that. They're filled with idiot "experts" that the star has to suggest things to. Plus, some of the dialog is just so stupid. It treats the viewer as an idiot. But who knows, if you can ignore the books, the radio shows, the original TV show and it got non-insulting intelligent writers then maybe this could have been a show worth wasting an hour on. Not a whole-hearted endorsement.

I love The Saint and often watch several episodes at a time. From the 1962 black & white and into the colour versions finishing 1969. I enjoy them all but there is no way you could make a new version of this show because it was of it's time. Today you can't go around saving ladies from danger and being a Gentleman Adventurer, it is just not believable in today's world so he required a purpose. It is stylishly shot but does lack the glamour of the original, probably down to the fact it started as a TV show then made into a movie.. They even sort of had a slight update on the theme tune occasionally playing in scenes. One of the reviewers said the years haven't been kind to Roger Moore, he was 89 and I would like to know if any of us are going to weather that many years as well.

As a stand alone 2017 update it is OK and I will leave it at that.

RIP Roger and thanks for all the marvellous entertainment you have given me and my Dad over the years.

Accept this for what it is- a failed television pilot with added scenes added to pad it out to movie length.

The main reason this never made it to series has to be Eliza Dushku. She is a "black hole" that causes all action to stop any time she is on camera. She behaves as if she is heavily medicated -- delivering each and every line with the same flat monotone. I wonder why any performer with such a severely limited range can have a career even in Hollywood.

The other major failing here is with the basic plot. It is about as generic as possible, Absolutely nothing in this film is even remotely new or fresh -- it all has a "seen this all before many many times" aspect to it.

The Saint was intended to be a relaunched television series starring Adam Rayner as Simon Templar. A few years after the initial pilot, there were some additional footage shot to turn it into a feature length direct to pay TV release.

Simon Templar also known as The Saint is called on by a man who has robbed billions for the shadowy organisation he works from a poor African nation. The man works for the Fixer (Ian Ogilvy) who is most unhappy that his right hand man has grown a conscious, he wants the money back and so he has kidnapped his daughter.

Templar has to find his daughter as well as evading an FBI agent who is determined to track him down. However when Templar sees a certain ring, it brings back memories of the past and a betrayal by someone he was once close to.

Ever since the interminably dull Simon Dutton television movies from 1989, the reputation of The Saint on screen has suffered. The viewer wants something more than just a posh gentleman but slightly shady adventurer who comes to the rescue of a damsel in distress in some exotic location.

This film has extensive location shooting and still at times looks cheap with green screen. Rayner seems to get there as Templar at the end, it helps that he seems comfortable with some of the action footage. However the story is just workmanlike and generic.

The film has the gimmick of actually having the Three Saints. Ogilvy plays the villain with some links to the Knights Templar and he certainly seems to be enjoying himself. The late Sir Roger Moore pops up as well giving his successor, Ogilvy a telling off.