Reviews

The opening five minutes of the film are a marvel. Almost completely devoid of dialogue the scenes portray visually more story than most modern thrillers can fit into two hours. This is about the best book-to-film conversion I've ever seen. The cuts, where they are made, are logical and some locations are combined. From Forsyth's first, and probably best book (written in less than 5 weeks) this film contains nothing that does not drive the story forward. The character of the Jackal is brilliantly finely drawn. He doesn't contain any of the cliches that you would expect to see in a film written in the last twenty years (he doesn't display mental instability, or have flashbacks to some event in his past). He never tries to justify his pernicious occupation to anyone yet, strangely, doesn't come across as an evil man. Simply as a professional doing his job. The French police inspector is wonderfully underplayed and is as far away from the he-breaks-the-rules-but-he-gets-the-job-done cliche as you can possibly imagine. He is first seen attending to his pigeons and upon being told he is being put on the case simply says "Oh God..."....

Zimmemann's direction is great and the scenes are beautifully photographed - particularly in Paris.

This is an all-time great film. Definitely in my top ten. I suppose I must put something in negative so it makes for a balanced review so errr.... I think the French minister is wearing a very bad wig. Beyond that -marvelous.

This was the only movie I had seen in a cinema that was so bad that I almost walked out. The story is ridiculous and completely devoid of atmosphere and the main villain is about as frightening as a hairdresser. The initial premise was weak (why didn't they just keep turning the wheel until it worked?) and the ending was predictable. But the major problem was the trip between the start and the end was so dull.

And why, whenever marines appear in a movie, is there always one called Kowalski??

On the plus side, the graphics are very good. The flushing-down-the-U-bend travel scenes are effective, and the watery toilet bowl that they climb into is effective. Also I love the guards helmets that fold up very nicely indeed.

I haven't read the other comments yet, but I suspect there will be a lot of positive ones because the special effects are quite good. But please, trust me on this, IT'S A BAD FILM. If you are going down to the video store, consider reaching for something else like Independence Day (made by the same people, full of flaws, but a roller coaster ride and lots of fun), Contact (similar space travel scenes to Stargate, but much more intelligently carried out) or even The Mummy, which is about as inaccurate on Ancient Egypt (why do they have pyramids in Thebes...???) but it has more laughs and action on the way.