Cast and Crew: Phillip Noyce (Director); Val Kilmer, Elizabeth Shue
What It’s About: Simon Templar (Val Kilmer) is a man of many identities. He uses deception to target dangerous international criminals, and he works for himself. When he crosses paths with a blonde scientist, his anonymity — and with it, his safety — is threatened. Together, they must outwit and escape a gang of murderous Russians in the mayhem of post-Soviet Moscow, while evading British investigators at the same time. Based on Leslie Charteris’ character Simon Templar, originally the hero of a series of novels, and later of numerous films and the popular Sixties television series starring Roger Moore.
Why Watch it Today?: Since the heyday of his popularity in the Eighties and Nineties, Val Kilmer has devoted an increasing amount of time to his personal projects, including a Mark Twain biopic and charitable work in support of Christian Science, the religion of which he is a member (n.b. not Scientology!). Today is the anniversary of the dedication of the Mother Church, a Christian Science landmark in Boston, Massachusetts. It opened on December 29, 1894.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx2r0t6v7ZI
This is the second in my series of reviews of films that feature men wearing leather trousers. Previously: The Crow (1994).
The League of Dead Films 
When I was a kid my dad and brother loved to watch reruns of the Moore series, during which one or the other would inevitably talk about how Moore made a much better Saint than he did a Bond. My only other exposure to the character (besides this movie, which I don’t really remember anything of except the guys in front of us shushing my friend and I for laughing at inopportune moments) has been through the Saint radio series, which starred Vincent Price and is decent, if not my favorite radio show. You can check it out at Archive.org: https://archive.org/details/TheSaintVincentPriceOTR
Wait, there weren’t leather pants in White Christmas? I coulda sworn that Bing wore a pair. If not, I can think of one movie we plan on doing a group discussion for soon that features a truly epic pair of leather (or were they pleather?) trousers.
The only way I can imagine Bing Crosby wearing leather trousers is if he ever did a turn as Daniel Boone. Not really the same vibe… Based on your comment, maybe I’ll have to give the Saint TV series a shot. I detest Moore as Bond, so didn’t have much desire to watch him in anything else, ever.
Well, to be honest, I haven’t seen the TV show since I was in single digits, but from what I remember Moore is younger, and there’s less “camp” comedy and more of him being an appropriately Saint-like funny rogue.