User Reviews

Although The Jackal is one of my favorite films, due to the fine acting of all the principal players (especially Diane Venora), and good direction of the action scenes, the plot contains an amazing number of outright ludicrous elements that I must protest. Taking it from the beginning: In the opening scene, a coalition of police forces storms a Moscow nightclub to arrest a Russian gang figure named Gazzi. Now, as any policeman knows, the first thing you do in an arrest is handcuff the perp. But in this case, despite their overwhelming numbers and armament, Major Koslova (Venora) and Carter Preston (Sidney Poitier), stand and argue with the guy for a few minutes while the other police stand by and do nothing. This, of course, allows Gazzi to get the jump on Koslova with a knife. Not the greatest police work. Then as Gazzi and Koslova struggle, she manages to get her gun free and shoot him. A few minutes later Preston thanks her for saving his life. His life? She was the one he was trying to kill.

For revenge, Gazzi's brother hires the Jackal (Bruce Willis) to perform an assassination of, as it turns out, the First Lady of the U.S. In the next scene, the Jackal purchases a weapon on the internet - from some sort of eBay for terrorists, it would seem. He chooses a huge Gatling gun that fires monstrous depleted uranium bullets at an advertised 1400 rounds a minute (although if you time the actual firing later in the film, it isn't even a third of that rate). Now the question is: Was he high? If you want to kill a single person the best weapon is a sniper rifle of some kind, like the one used by the Jackal in the original novel. One of those would have been infinitely easier to acquire, transport, and hide. Instead he buys a machine cannon that would be more appropriate for engaging an entire army division. Okay, dramatic license, but please.

He smuggles the giant weapon to Canada, and there he contracts a local techno-hood (Jack Black) to build him a remote controlled firing apparatus. He tells the hood he doesn't want to attract any attention, and demands that he turn over the blueprints for the thing when he is finished. Then when the hood asks him or a few thousand bucks for the plans (out of 70 million the Jackal is being paid), he takes the guy out into the woods and uses him for target practice with his weapon, leaving the corpse and several hundred somewhat unusual depleted uranium bullets for the authorities to find. How's that for not attracting attention? In the book, the Jackal kills the guy in his house and hides the body, much more credibly.

After the gruesome murder scene is quickly discovered, Preston and Declan Mulqueen (Richard Gere) fly up to Canada and locate the hood's shop, where they find the blueprints for the firing station that were so important for the Jackal to destroy, although after he'd killed Black, the Jackal seems to have decided the blueprints weren't worth going back to the shop for. This is a guy that is the absolute best at his trade? Mulqueen takes one look at the plans for the device, which had nothing to do with the weapon itself except to mount it and fire it, and immediately deduces the exact cyclic rate of the weapon's automatic fire. Brainy.

The Jackal manages to smuggle the weapon across Lake Michigan on a pleasure boat, and as he's docked at a marina he spies Mulqueen, who appears to be searching for him (Mulqueen had not yet seen him at that point). Does he try to hide, to appear inconspicuous, to keep a low profile? No, he pulls out a gun and starts firing at Mulqueen! How's that for not attracting attention? Then he has to make a screaming getaway in his van. Great plan, for someone whose success depends on not being discovered.

For her safety, Mulqueen's former lover Isabella (Mathilda May) is moved out of her house by the FBI people, who fear the Jackal may come after her. Why he might be after her is never explained (perhaps he would need a pleasantly sadistic diversion from the tedious job of planning an assassination). Rather than leave the house empty, Koslova and an FBI agent remain in it, sitting ducks. Why? At one point they realize the Jackal is probably inside the house (they were outside at the time). Do they call for backup? Do they establish a perimeter and contain him, knowing that they have him boxed in? No, of course not. They run back into the house, where the Jackal, hiding and waiting for them, kills them both. Police Work 101? In the film's climactic scene, the Jackal and Mulqueen face off in a DC Metro station in the middle of the day. The scene is a good 5 minutes long, and for the duration of it no one else (except for Isabella) appears in the station. Even assuming that all the riders had been scared away by the gunplay, it's hard to imagine that no police of any variety showed up. Maybe the director waved them out.

Considering the competence of the good guys and the bad guy, it's surprising anybody won.

Its a good movie to watch. Th disguises by Bruce Willis are really good and keeps you in the seat. the gun too is amazing to work in action for the kind of people that like all smoke and no target.

But those who think much might never recommend this movie. Tactics never seem realistic.

1. Jackal(Bruce Willis) is hired for the work. Then there is no news of the client. Whether he is dead or alive no one knows or cares, not even the Jackal.

2. Is it really possible to buy that sort of a gun on "the internet". Don't think so.

3. The Jackal is suppose to be best at his work. Surely he seems like a rookie He can't even do silent kill.

4. The way Richard Gere deduces things is far fetched. How in the world can he know Jackal is going after the first lady from that.

5. Jackal lacks effort. The guy cant even get a second car, instead of the one everyone knows about.

Lot more questions...

In retaliation for the FBI war against the mob in Russian, the mob pay famous assassin Carlos the Jackal to kill a senior figure in the US government. FBI deputy director Preston discovers that the Jackal has been contracted out he contacts one of the few men who can identify him - IRA gunman Declan Mulqueen. With the Jackal moving freely within the US it is a race against time to find and stop him before he reaches his target.

Before he died, the director of "The Day of the Jackal", Zinnermann approached Universal to have the name changed so that it wouldn't be so closely associated with his own film. They didn't change it and it's easy to see what his point was. The plot of this is a bit silly and doesn't have any intelligence or subtlety. The Jackal is careful is some scenes but takes on FBI agents in others, he covers all his tracks in designing his gun, but he kills the builder and leaves the plans for the FBI to find! It doesn't totally make sense - things are tidied up too easily - Mulqueen finds the Jackal too easily when the film needs a boost of action.

Willis is OK as the Jackal but he's not totally convincing because he usually plays roles where he runs round shooting, rather than being a very clinical hitman who only fires one shot then leaves undetected. Even here he does some planning but he only looks comfortable when in running gun battles. Gere is good in an action man role (I'm not a big fan), but he has one of the worst Northern Irish accents even put on the big screen - it goes from N.Ireland to Southern Ireland and back again from one scene to the next. Poitier is a classy inclusion in the pack but doesn't have much to do but act tough beside Gere. Support is interesting, but they don't have much to do - Jack Black was great in High Fidelity, but is cannon fodder here. J.K. Simmons is amazing in Oz but is just an agent here. Venora is good despite a very heavy accent. Sophie Okonedo is beautiful as she was in various British TV series but only has a few fleeting lines of dialogue. And Leslie Phillips is wasted in such a small cameo of little significance that you wonder why he bothered.

The whole plot sits funny with me - I really don't understand why Gere's character had to be an IRA murderer. There's an early scene where he's verbally attacked by one of the FBI for killing women and children, but he's given time to defend himself. After that we all forget who he is and everyone loves him. The final act of the film left a bitter taste in my mouth (I grew up in NI), and you can't help but wonder who in America wants to promote the IRA as somehow honourable or sympathetic (also see "The Devil's Own") - I wonder if Hollywood understands now how offending it is to see terrorists displayed in this way?

Overall, it's quite fun in a brash, loud sort of way - but ultimately it'll leave you wondering what you just watched and "how did that happen" and "hang on that bit doesn't work". As a distracting blockbuster it's quite good but as a relative of 1973's "Day of the Jackal" it's an illegitimate third cousin.

It took a friend a lot of convincing to make me see "The Jackal". After all, the original "Day of the Jackal" remains one of my all-time favorites and since I'm not particularly fond of remakes, I gave this film a skip for many years. However, there come those days of 'nothing else on TV, so what the hell' and must admit, the remake isn't half-bad.

Edward Fox is one of my favorite on screen-assassins, having played his role so convincing, that it was frightening. His passionless killing-machine made him look less human than Arnies Terminator and, seeing the "Day of the Jackal" as a kid, the thought that people like this could actually exist, gave me the creeps. Other than his strange stage-crooner-persona of 'Bruno', Bruce Willis' Jackal may well be the most unusual Willis you've seen to date. Let's speak honest: Bruce is a character whom everybody likes to watch on screen – but a thespian with a great repertoire he's not. Willis seems to try and 'out-Herod' Edward Foxes psychopath from the original – and does a remarkable job. At times his performance is eerie, indeed having the evil glare of a jackal.

It's a nice nod to the original (where it is not only left open whether the Jackal was hetero-, homo-, bi-sexual or something completely different) that there are hints that Willis' Jackal may actually be gay. This is not meant to sound demeaning but a gay Bruce Willis is like, let me think, a straight Bruno (the Sasha Baron Cohen Bruno, not Willis' alter-ego). While Edward Fox slept with victims of both sexes, Willis is only once seen seducing a future victim, in this case a male politician. But more so, during the few moments where we see the supposed real personality (if something like this exists) of the Jackal, there's something distinctly feminine about the character. One example would be when he kills Major Koslova, the other, more poignant, when he receives the call that the contract is off while taking a bath and sipping on Rose wine (also a remarkable scene because Willis manages to do all the acting with his eyes alone).

To speak of the 'supporting' roles (because a film with Bruce Willis, other than "Pulp Fiction" only has one real star): all fine as you'd expect from veterans like Richard Gere (despite the cringe-worthy accent), Sidney Poitier (sadly, one of his last few screen-appearances), JK Simmons, Tess Harper or Jack Black (according to rumors, the audience was cheering him being shot to bits, with people remarking "wish this would happen in every film he's in").

Of course the movie has weaknesses and plot-holes that are bigger than that Freudian nightmare which is the Jackals gun. For the life of me I still don't understand how the ex-terrorist Isabella Zanconia could have aided with the capture of the Jackal. But so what? In the end, this is a "boy's movie": boys who like big guns and dramatic action-scenes involving helicopters, car-chases and big guns. Boys who like loud, snappy techno-soundtracks accompanying Bruce Willis firing big guns. Boys who like to watch Jack Black being obliterated by a big gun. In short, boys like you and me – and despite still not being very fond of remakes, I can honestly say that I liked "The Jackal". "Doesn't have to be caviar all the time", goes a saying – sometimes a burger from greasy McDs will do, just as there are times for a no-brainer like "The Jackal".

7 generous points out of 10, because giving points doesn't cost money.

Never have I ever wanted the bad guy to succeed more in a movie than in the Jackal! Bruce Willis plays the assassin hired by the biggest gangster in all of Russia. The Jackal is this international assassin who's cool as a cucumber no matter who he's dealing with and is not the least bit intimidated by the Russian Mob Boss who he makes a deal with for an insane amount of money. Bruce Willis's character is constantly changing identities like the bad guy version of the saint. One of the coolest assassins I've ever seen played out. As you can guess the most disappointing part of this movie is that the lame good guys somehow stop this super-cool and dubious villain from his mission. I believe Matthew McCoughnahay would say "It'd be a lot cooler if he got away with it!" Great movie anyways.

As a re-make of "The Day of The Jackal" this movie succeeds in updating the setting without completely destroying the character. As so many re-makes tend to do. Here we find the historical and geo-political context totally changed but there is successfully conveyed the sense of an urgent hunt for one dangerous, faceless force of doom.

The technical aspects are among the best features. The cannon is for me the true star of the movie. Willis's multiple identities make for the other star feature. Also his portrayal of the psychopath's obsessional attention to detail and determination to make his lethal "toy" fulfil it's dreadful promise. Check out that look in his eyes in the climactic park scene as he wiggles his "joy" stick.

These things allowed, there is one blundering and grossly offensive feature. Gere's character could have been any terrorist from an imaginary outfit or assassin or foreign agent, who happened to know about the "Jackal". Why make him a "hero" out of the IRA? This is yet another manifestation of Hollywood's liberal mind-set dabbling in things of which they have not the glimmering of an understanding. As a UK citizen I have seen plenty of IRA and UDA thugs dragged out into the daylight. Fat tattooed men with twisted faces, scruffy facial hair and mullet hair-cuts. There never was one who could by the remotest stretch of the imagination be likened to a suave sex-bomb like Richard Gere. When one of the FBI agents suggests that his "war" took the lives of women and children rather than "British" soldiers he declares that he never got involved in such things. That is a statement every bit as ridiculous as if it were uttered by one of Osama Bin Laden's lieutenants! Can you imagine Richard Gere at a meeting planning the Manchester city centre bombing, saying to his "colleagues" "Aw, I'm sorry, I 'll have to sit it out on this one, chaps, this isn't my way of fighting a war." And, incidentally, Ulster has been a constitutional part of the British Isles for five hundred years ( twice as long as the U.S.A has existed ). Please note, Hollywood, the Northern Irish ARE British. Moreover, the use of the expression "British" to refer to the English ( which would have been what he meant ) is a uniquely American error.

There are also numerous "howlers" in the story. For example, if destroying the plans is so important to the assassin, why does he go off and leave them laying about to be discovered? When the gangster falls dead in the car-park, what happens to the body? Where did Gere's pistol come from in the final scenes? Why did the Jackal wait for the FBI to arrive before opening fire on the intended victim? Why, when they knew who it was and that he was there, did they not simply postpone the opening? Why were there no police or security arriving in the Metro station ( apart from the one killed )?

These things aside, a good set of cliff-hangers and one excellent and novel twist, a play on our assumptions, at the end.

I would give this movie a higher score but I think the ending is just god awful. Like why does the chick just appear out of nowhere and shoot Bruce Willis in the neck? Like what? Give us a decent fight at least geez.

SPOILERS I liked this film. OK at times it seemed to go along quite slowly but every scene with Bruce Willis was electrifying. For this reason I found myself wanting The Jackal to succeed in his assassination attempt. This is obviously not what the film should be doing, leaving the audience wanting the antagonist to win the day but there just seemd to be no empathy with the other characters.

Richard Gere's character's emotion at the death of Diane Venora was totally uncalled for. They only actually spoke properly in a conversation once in the film. And anyway he would not be the first to approach her, he's a convict for heavens sake! I also hated the ending with his old bird saving him. She would never have been there. And in the chase prior to that why didn't Willis just turn round and kill Gere in the tunnel. He's a killer and excellent shot, as he proved earlier. There was no need to run off because it was only Gere chasing him, not an army of men.

However Jack Black's torture was sublime and by far the best scene in the film. And as I said before every scene with Willis in, bar the resolution was first rate. Enjoyable action fare overrall.

A almost-typical modern-day crime film in which a hired killer goes after a political figure and the FBI tries to stop him.

THE BAD - There is a shootout scene at the harbor where nobody was shot despite three professional killers all doing the shooting. Then there is the classic Hollywood hesitation by the killer at the end, thus enabling the potential victim to be spared. That same killer ("The Jackal," played by Bruce Willis) would also have killed the FBI man (Richard Gere) without hesitation at the end. And, how Gere knew Willis was in the subway is never explained. There are other credibility holes, too, in here: too many.

THE GOOD - The cast of Willis, Gere, Sidney Poitier and Diane Venora is first- class. All of them play interesting and likable characters - even the villain! Gere did a credible job with an Irish accent and Venora the same, playing a Russian. It was fun watch Willis with his various disguises. The story keeps your interest all the way. It does it right by not having too much action, but shocking and memorable when it does occur. If you have good speakers there is some great sound in the last 20 minutes. A good movie if you like suspense.

OVERALL - Definitely worth a look...or two.