The Jackal

With its strong premise, a couple of fine performances and highly polished tooling, The Jackal scores as an involving high-tech thriller that occasionally hits peaks of pulsating excitement.

To enjoy it, however, you have to do the mental equivalent of squinting your eyes, so the credibility is only fuzzily ridiculous.

The Jackal isn't much--it certainly isn't up to the 1973 Fred Zinnemann Day of the Jackal it loosely adapts and updates--but it does offer the fascination of watching big-ticket actors attempt to spin their images.

The Jackal is based on a fabrication so absurd that it almost made me laugh out loud.

Michael Caton-Jones' pompous and coarsely stupid inflation of what remains a superior thriller, Fred Zinnemann's The Day of the Jackal (1973).

Not since "Peacemaker" have we witnessed such a battle of wits.

Scottish director Michael Caton-Jones continues to fritter away the last traces of his talent with this ugly variant on Fred Zinnemann's 1973 original, The Day of the Jackal.

The Jackal is a 1997 film starring Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, Jack Black, Sidney Poitier and Diane Venora, it's a thriller with bits of action splattered throughout. The Jackal is not a bad film, some of the action scenes are good and some scenes more dull and depressing than others but I think because of the teamwork put in it's okay... There are some ridiculously stupid scenes that are so laughable though and moronic beyond belief, for instance, Jack Black gets asked by the Jackal (Bruce Willis) to stand Infront of a huge, powerful cannon gun that separates limbs from other limbs and spits out bullets faster than a dog on heat, this cannon would make mashed potato out of a human lol. However Jack Black being dumb stands in front of the Jackal's cannon knowing full well he's going to die, holds out a packet of cigarettes as instructed and sobs like a little girl lol. I've no sympathy for him because he's dumb and got himself killed because that's stupidity beyond belief and so unrealistic because any normal person wouldn't of stood infront of that cannon to die. Besides that stupid scene the Jackal is a good and fairly decent film but not perfect by any means. Still worth buying on dvd or watching on television though. Richard Gere plays some fake Irish accent dude named Declan Mulqueen who eventually stops the Jackal with the help of some lady friend. Overall an okay film.

A competent and effective work, but devoid of any originality. In this film, we see the FBI's attempts to stop a mysterious killer whose face was never seen by anyone left alive to tell the authorities. He was hired to act and avenge the death of the brother of a Russian mafia boss, killed by US agents in an operation in Moscow. In order to identify their man, federal agents must go to prison and negotiate the release of a former IRA agent, the only one who has seen the killer's face. The film is quite good, but to a certain extent it reminds me of another one I saw, “The Rock”, a thriller where, as in this film, the success of the authorities' efforts depends on the help of a foreign prisoner. In both films, we also see the human side of this character, who is presented to us in the most sympathetic way possible. The time element is also an important factor in both films, where all the action takes place in a true race against the clock. I cannot, however, say that everything works perfectly: there are several points in the story that seem to me to have been included without any real use for the plot and perfectly illogical, exaggerated situations (the final climax with the machine gun is the most obvious since a real killer would never do that) or absurd (for example, the amount paid to the killer, who appears to be being paid to rob Fort Knox, given the exorbitant amount). Despite embodying a truly brutal and cold character, Bruce Willis is the actor who stands out the most in this film. For me, he really managed to deliver what the character demanded of him: a methodical, sinister and cruel brutality of someone who made killing his profession and is very meticulous in what he does. Richard Gere was also good, although in a much more monotonous, monotone, sometimes boring and lazy register. The rest of the cast is simply giving them the support they need, without really standing out, especially Sidney Poitier. Mathilda May is the actress who receives the worst material and the one who does the worst in the film, as a result. Despite being an action thriller movie, the pace is relatively slow, although that is a lesser evil and allows for the development of some sub-plots that would otherwise be stillborn. The cinematography does a very competent and safe job, and the filming was very well executed. The props, sets and costumes helped, but it's the special effects used, in conjunction with the excellent work of the action doubles, that bring the most impressive scenes to life.

Above average casting and production budget fail to manifest a memorable or even average cinematic journey. This genre is ridiculously saturated with far better examples of the cat and mouse playbook we are shown here. There are even better examples of this story and it's characters in particular the more recent TV series of the same material (2025). Richard gere's accent is aimless and distracting to hear. Willis produces generic by the numbers killer with only hints of depth. Music is forgettable and the cinematography is uninspired. Ultimately this is a forgettable movie with a weak ending.

Well, Bruce Willis has made many accomplishments in the film industry. In Die Hard, he established himself as an action actor, and in The Sixth Sense he proved that he can play even serious characters. He has had a wide range of activities, but his work in this film seems to be limited. It has a well-worn structure, a well-worn plot, and a well-worn action sequence. What is wrong with this film is mainly the script. It is boring, conventional, and uninteresting for more than two hours. It's just enemies trying to thwart each other's plans. It's a theme we've all grown tired of seeing, and while the FBI vs. gangsters is the name of the game, it's very easy to predict that it will be Richard Gere vs. Bruce Willis, a fight that will draw a certain number of people. Great is only on the up side, and the film is an empty, empty box. Throughout the film, Willis and Gere engage in some cool action and offensive fights, but that not only doesn't save the film, it makes it even more conventional. It is predictable that Richard Gere is treated as a hero by the end of the film, despite being a villain in his initial scenes. It is also predictable that he foils the perfect jackal's plan. The punchline, the fight, the theme itself, and even the film's few highlights all predate us. If we had to give it a title, it should be "The Jackal," not "Itchigoe. The film is so simple that it can be summed up in one word. Oh, it's a showstopper. The film is predictable and empty, the characters in the film are dull and the direction is childish. It's stuffy and inadequate. Despite the action movie's royal, or worse, typical plot, the film is too embarrassing to be called an action movie royal.

A retelling of The Day Of The Jackal, and a really poor one at that. For an action thriller, this is dull and absurd. And that's saying something.