Friday Night Double Feature: Saint's Mission

I mentioned in our Friday Night Double Feature about heist movies that I love watching all the twists and turns that come as a secret plan comes to light. I guess it’s like Hannibal always said on The A-Team: I love it when a good plan comes together. To me it’s even better when the audience itself is left out on elements of the plan, so things unfolding are as much a surprise to the audience as they are to the characters within.

Technically I guess today’s feature could be considered another version of Heist Away, since the two movies both features characters acting as thieves and going to great lengths to acquire that which they are after. Heck, the sequel for the first movie in this week’s feature would even poke fun at the first movie’s outlandish plans, favoring showmanship over practicality.

Neither of this week’s movies are “fantastic” films, although both are enjoyable. This is the kind of double feature you can just kick back and relax to as you watch the plan come together. Check your brain at the door and just enjoy simple stories centered around overly complex plots as a spy and a saint do what they do best and tantalize audiences along the way.

Mission Impossible

Truth be told, I’m not even that big a fan of the first Mission Impossible, a movie that established a shaky foundation that two other movies managed to build more solidly upon. I think the moment Peter Graves refused to be involved the screenwriters should have cut Mr. Phelps and gone with another less well known name to play the mentoring spy to Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt. Still, double agent plots aside, Mission Impossible does feature some incredible stunts and plans, making the three major action sequences of the movie enjoyable, even if you cut them out of the droll plot that intertwines them. Of course, everyone remembers the climactic break in that finds Hunt suspended from midair, miraculously catching his own bead of sweat (even though he’s not far enough off the floor to move his hand down in the previous shot), but the opening break-in that kills off half the IMF team is equally enjoyable. While the final battle featuring a chopper in the chunnel may be too outlandish for most viewers, I did warn you to check your brain and just enjoy the good.

The Saint

While I make apologies for Mission Impossible’s inclusion here, I don’t do that as easily for The Saint, one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies. And I’ll be honest: I knew nothing about Roger Moore’s television series until this movie, nor have I seen an episode yet. I just love The Saint as a cheesy, enjoyable good picture. I know the content of the movie is light, and the believability of Val Kilmer using the names of different saints to travel under without getting noticed by the government organization pursuing him is thin (especially after Elizabeth Shue’s character figures it out so easily) but, darn it, this is a fun movie! Put aside that you have two incredibly attractive lead actors (this is the movie that made me fall in love with Shue again) and just focus on the fun. Kilmer’s Saint is always one step ahead of the bad guys. He has contingency plan after contingency plan to avoid getting caught. He may have one heck of an ego (this is Val Kilmer after all) but Simon Templar has the skills to back it up, and nothing short of a miracle… or three miracles, will keep him from winning by the time the end credits roll.

Other miraculous missions: Mission Impossible II, Mission Impossible III, The Avengers, La Femme Nikita, Face/Off

Enjoy our Double Feature suggestions? and maybe we’ll use them in a future column.