After the success of his one and only outing as the Dark Knight in 1995's Batman Forever, apparently Val Kilmer figured he'd like to embrace another action role as part of a potential franchise. This led him to 1997's The Saint.

A master of disguise, international thief Simon Templar (Kilmer) gets known as "the Saint" because he uses the names of Catholic notables for his false identities. Simon decides that he will retire once he gets $50 million saved in his Swiss bank account.

On the verge of this goal, Simon takes a job to steal a cold fusion formula from Dr. Emma Russell (Elisabeth Shue) to sell to Ivan Tretiak (Valery Nikolaev), a Russian industrialist turned politician who promises to Make Russia Great Again. Inevitably, complications ensue, especially when Simon and Dr. Russell develop a romance.

As implied at the start, it seems clear all involved hoped The Saint would launch a franchise. Does this act as a spoiler to reveal that Simon doesn't retire at the end of the film?

Maybe, but I suspect any prospective viewers figured out the producers didn't intend the movie as a one-shot deal. However, I guess Saint's $169 million worldwide haul based on a $90 million budget didn't seem sufficient to spawn a sequel.

Or maybe Kilmer just didn't want to bother with a second film. Whatever the case, this version of the series based on novels by Leslie Charteris started and ended in 1997.

I never saw The Saint in the 90s, whether in theaters or on video. With this 2026 release as my initial screening, did I miss out on anything back then?

Nah. While not a terrible thriller, The Saint fails to become anything better than mediocre.

Okay, I will give the film credit for the manner in which the film foreshadowed the Trump era. Granted, “really rich guy tries to institute dictatorship” doesn’t seem fresh, but the manner in which the movie explores Tretiak’s crusade does seem eerily familiar circa 2026.

In terms of other positives, Kilmer offers a fine lead performance. He pulls off the “man of 1000 faces” transformations in a lively manner that hints toward camp but never quite goes there, so Kilmer’s various characters become a highlight of the production.

Well, mostly, as some of Kilmer’s creations falter. For instance, the wealthy art maven he uses to get close to Emma seems awfully creepy and not the charming romantic he should be.

Nonetheless, Kilmer’s work turns into pretty much the movie’s closest thing to a saving grace. Outside of his alternate personalities, this becomes a tedious stab at a thriller.

The plot sputters and fails to build a head of steam. The screenplay can’t decide if it wants to focus on Simon’s exploits as a thief or the romance between Simon and Emma.

This leaves the narrative as unfocused and purposeless too much of the time. Though both very attractive, Kilmer and Shue don’t build chemistry and their entire relationship feels like the plot device it is.

Saint fares better when it gets into Simon’s craft, but even there it doesn’t fly. Tretiak never delivers an especially lively villain and the movie’s sporadic disinterest in his shenanigans makes it tough for the viewer to really invest in that side of things.

With flicks like 1994’s Clear and Present Danger and 2010’s Salt, director Phillip Noyce showed the ability to create exciting thrillers. Unfortunately, those skills elude him here.

At its heart, The Saint boasts the potential to bring a lively mix of intrigue, romance and comedy. As executed, though, the film lacks flair and becomes a sluggish dud.

The Saint appears in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. While watchable, the image seemed dated.

Sharpness occasionally looked pretty good but the movie generally showed bland delineation. Some edge haloes and processing didn’t help, so this tended to feel like a less the precise presentation.

Neither jagged edges nor shimmering materialized. Grain felt clumpy and more like noise, and various specks and marks cropped up through the film, though not to a dominant degree.

Colors leaned toward a mix of blues and ambers. The movie replicated them in an adequate manner but not one that allowed them to ever seem especially full.

Blacks became moderately inky and crushed, while shadows could become a bit dense. The image did enough right to earn a “C” but this disappointing transfer gave off the odor of a recycled DVD scan.

At least the movie’s Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack worked better, even if it didn’t bring a ton of pizzazz. At times, action scenes with gunfire or the like added some spark and used the five channels in a reasonably involving manner.

However, these didn’t dominate, so a lot of the film went with general atmosphere. Those components utilized the spectrum in an appropriate manner, and music fleshed out the soundscape well.

Audio quality seemed positive, though speech could come across as oddly reedy at times. Still, the lines usually felt fairly natural and they lacked edginess or intelligibility concerns.

Music brought full tones and effects appeared accurate and lively. All of this led to a good but not great soundtrack for a movie from 1997.

Along with the film’s trailer, the disc includes an audio commentary from director Philip Noyce. He provides a running, screen-specific look at how he came to the project and aspects of its development, story, characters, and the history of the property, cast and performances, sets and locations, music and audio, cinematography and color timing, editing and reshoots, an alternate ending, stunts and action.

2nd unit director/visual effects supervisor Robert Grasmere also pops up sporadically during the film's second half to talk about his work.

Noyce enters the chat prepared and makes this a succinct and informative track as he covers a broad array of useful topics. Noyce even digs into his involvement in the casting of voice actors to dub non-English versions!

Grasmere fleshes out the talk as well. All this turns the commentary into a highly detailed and engaging piece.

With a good director, a solid cast and a potentially dynamic plot, The Saint should sizzle. Instead, it becomes a mushy mess that never finds a groove. The Blu-ray comes with pretty good audio, mediocre visuals and a excellent commentary. Given its inherent positives, the end product disappoints.