For anybody who knows about Val Kilmer’s bad-boy reputation, the title of his new thriller, The Saint, may seem like a misnomer, or at least an ironic bit of humor at his expense.

Ever since Kilmer turned down the role in the upcoming Batman installment, rumors have surfaced that he is “difficult to work with.” Whether this snippet of Hollywoodese translates as, “He’s a complete jerk,” is open to interpretation.

So The Saint is super-important to his career, as far as being a “leading-man” goes. And if my opinion counts for a hill of beans (or even a pile thereof), Kilmer ain’t no saint, but he sure is some kind of heavenly body.

And I’m not even talking about a purely aesthetic thing here.

Yes, the Val-ster is intensely good-looking, no matter what kind of fake hair or chin putty he’s got on his head. But I’m not so shallow as to dig a film because of the tasty star.

The Saint has a thrilling, James-Bond quality without the hokeyness.

Kilmer plays this kind of freelance renegade, nicknamed Simon the Magician because of his uncanny ability to squeak through even the tightest situations.

Simon dons wigs, glasses, mustaches and fake accents in order to assume scads of different identities — always handy for a guy in his profession.

His trademark (besides the $40 million-plus in his Swiss bank account) is that he always takes the name of a Catholic saint, a remnant from a horrifying stint in an orphanage run by priests when he was a child.

His reputation as a master rogue leads him to Ivan Tretiak (played by Rade Serbediza), a billionaire industrialist who is trying to overthrow the Russian president.

Tretiak desperately wants to get on the good side of the Russian people, who are literally freezing to death in their homes because of a shortage of heating oil.

So Tretiak commissions Simon to steal the formula for cold fusion, which is in the hands of master scientist Dr. Emma Russell, played by the hopelessly miscast Elisabeth Shue.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Shue, and I don’t even hold her brother Andrew against her. I mean, Adventures in Baby-Sitting, do I even need to say more? But despite my deep love for her, I hated her in this movie. For a brilliant physicist, she sure does giggle a lot.

She seems breathless and giddy at every turn, most of the time inappropriately so. I just don’t buy her as this amazing mind. Elisabeth, Elisabeth, Elisabeth! Why have you forsaken us?

Despite that little disappointment, though, The Saint boasts three miracles: First of all, it has a great plot, with tons of intensity and twisty turns and a real what-will-happen-next suspense.

Second, there’s the great use of an old good guy-bad guy story. I thought that since the Soviet Union no longer exists, maybe we’d get a break from the us-versus-them movie plot, but I’m not gripin’ now.

The Cold War residue has made for a thrilling adventure.

Third, it has Kilmer the man. He manages to alter himself like a freakin’ chameleon at least a half dozen times during the course of the movie, but he never loses his strength and charisma.

He’s also funny, and he delivers his quips in a very natural and human way. Call me crazy, but he has definitely graduated from the Batman school of one-liners.

Hmm, three miracles, one movie. Do I see a little canonization in the future?