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NickKitt
Reviews
The Saint (2017)
A NEAR PERFECT SAINT....AT LAST...
The Saint has always been a hard character to nail down correctly on screen...The films from the 40's always had the wrong actors and silliest of plots way unworthy of the resourceful Mr Templar. The classic TV series with Roger Moore was much better although it was a somewhat watered down version of Mr Charteris' creation,but the series, despite that, was outstanding and, in many ways, faithful to the material. The Val Kilmer film you can just forget ,not even giving Leslie Charteris any credit and his name is no where to be seen.Disgraceful.
But this new film, under the guidance of Mr Moore himself (and his last acting role in a cameo) really gets to the core of the character of Simon Templar and even updates it to great success, capturing the spirit of Simon throughout. Charming, efficient, skilled,clever, tough, irreverent with even a "Saintly" smile depicted in the books. We also see that wherever The Saint goes in the world, he has those dubious connections to get him the things he needs. That is also right out of the books. And finally, we get Patricia Holm, seen only once in film before, THE SAINT MEETS THE TIGER. In this new film, Patricia is, indeed,Simon's partner and love interest and, here, a skillful operative and the perfect companion to Templar. This was how the stories were written back in the day.
Adam Rayner and Eliza Dushku captured their characters perfectly and do so well in this update. They don't play the roles from the 40's or 60's, but actually pull off these characters in the modern age with all the sensibilities of Mr Charteris' original heroes..They were outstanding.
The real shame is that was a pilot for a series which was actually picked up. But the waiting time between the pilot and that actual network pick-up conflicted the schedules of the lead actors and so, that's that. But this pilot for a potential new series about Simon Templar was very well done and would have done the whole world of The Saint immense justice and is, unfortunately, still way overdue.
The High Life (1996)
The High Life--A forgotten gem !!
I have all the episodes on video because I just happened to record it in it's original run but there might be some unaired episodes.It was a brilliant show!! I am amazed it is so forgotten and that it was cancelled so quickly,especially by HBO!! It starred Mark Wilson and Robert Joy as Earl and Emmett, two guys just scamming their way thru the Fifties running a storage business in Pittsburgh,Pa. As well as being funny,it tackled McCarthyism, the Klu Klux Klan, and even the Davy Crockett craze when Earl & Emmett try to sell unlicensed Crockett hats. Filmed in glorious black and white to capture that Fifties sitcom feel,the series is truly a forgotten gem !!!! The show was made by Worldwide Pants which,of course, is David Letterman's company. The show was truly unique because even though it was about the Fifties,it was way ahead of it's time. Try to think of "The Honeymooners" with a much more satirical and shaper edge !! A DVD release is a must !!!!!