The Jackal (Combo Blu-ray and Standard DVD) [Blu-ray]The Jackal (Combo Blu-ray and Standard DVD) [Blu-ray]
Bruce Willis is a ruthless assassin, known only as The Jackal, who has been hired to eliminate someone at the very top of the U.S. government. In order to track down this cold-blooded killer and prevent the hit, the FBI’s Deputy Director (Sidney Poitier) and a Russian intelligence officer (Diane Venora) enlist the aid of an imprisoned Irish terrorist (Richard Gere). These unlikely allies enter a global race against the clock to stop the mysterious mercenary before he can complete his deadly as
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(out of 125 reviews)
Review by Erika Borsos for The Jackal (Combo Blu-ray and Standard DVD) [Blu-ray]
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Director Michael Caton-Jones has created a good dramatic and suspense filled film with outstanding actors and a riveting, masterful plot. Bruce Willis plays the lead role as the “Jackal” a cold and calculating assassin. Sidney Poitier is superbly cast as the FBI Deputy Director. Richard Gere plays Declan Mulqueen, an IRA. terrorist, imprisoned in the USA. Diane Venora is cast as the Russian Interpol agent, Valentina Kostova. Scenes were filmed in many locations in Europe, primarily Helsinki, Finland which also served to represent Moscow, and London, England; Montreal, Canada; Chicago, Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. Essentially, the FBI and Russian agents managed to kill a Chechnyan mobster. Unfortunately, his brother is out for revenge and hires the Jackal to assassinate a top US official … Initially, they believe the target is the Director of the FBI. However, as time evolves, Declan Mulqueen discovers who the real target is.
Bruce Willis is chilling and real in his role as the Jackal. He engages in multiple disguises and identities throughout the film to achieve his goals. He manages to get a computer guided high tech weapon built and smuggled into the United States undetected. He gains entry into the US via a power boat over the Lakes from Canada to Lake Michigan and there he joins a boat race in Chicago by blending in. The FBI gets permission to spring Declan Mulqueen out of jail … in order to get his help to identify and apprehend the Jackal. He makes a deal to win his freedom, then joins in the chase to catch the Jackal.
It turns out the Jackal has another murder in mind along with accomplishing the task for which he was hired. The Jackal has an old score to settle with Isabella, a woman from his past who can identify him. She survived his attempt to kill her. She was a Spanish terrorist of Basque origins who worked with Declan Mulqueen many years ago. They had been lovers and she was pregnant with his child when the Jackal shot her … It seems Declan Mulqueen also has a score to settle with the Jackal. While the plot is well developed, the film drags on a bit, as much of the film involves chasing the Jackal while he deviously manages to avoid detection, When he gets closer to his target and the deadline … the film picks up speed and the story becomes more fascinating and complex. The ending is exciting and satisfying. Some feel the film made in 1973, “Day of the Jackal” upon which this film is based, is superior. Never having seen the former, I can only judge this film. Overall, this could have been a *more* exciting film given the action, drama, and well layed out plot but too much time is wasted in the big chase which makes one feel the film is much longer than it should be. Erika Borsos [pepper flower]
Review by Great Movie Addict for The Jackal (Combo Blu-ray and Standard DVD) [Blu-ray]
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I missed “The Jackal” when it was released, but the promo’s all said it was a modern remake of the classic “Day of the Jackal”. Forget it! Not only is this a bad remake, it’s so boring I trashed it halfway thru and never want to see it again. Put your time and money into the original “Day of the Jackal” and see what a great movie-maker like Fred Zinneman and company can do with a story like this.
Review by for The Jackal (Combo Blu-ray and Standard DVD) [Blu-ray]
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In 1971, Frederick Forsyth thrilled readers the world over with “The Day of the Jackal,” a highly detailed story of a mysterious assassin hired to kill French President Charles de Gaulle. Two years later, Fred Zinnemann directed an excellent film version of the novel, with Edward Fox as the Jackal and Michael Lonsdale as the French police detective trying to find him before it’s too late.And now we have this.Bruce Willis stars in “The Jackal” as an enigmatic gunman hired by the Russian mafia to kill the director of the FBI. (Why the head of the FBI and not someone Russian? The mafia chief says it will “send a message,” as the FBI is cooperating with the Russian police, but that really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.) Trying to find him before the kill takes place are Sidney Poitier as the FBI deputy director, Diane Venora as a Russian police colonel, and Richard Gere (sporting an Irish accent) as an IRA terrorist who is sprung from prison to help in the search.Willis tries to play the Jackal as a cold, calculating killer, but a lot of the time he just appears to be sleepwalking. Poitier gnashes his teeth and chews the scenery, but he really doesn’t have a lot to do in this film, and he knows it. Venora is there simply to add a bridge between the Russians and Americans, and Gere — I have no idea why he’s in this movie to begin with. After all, the original novel and film did quite well without throwing a character like his into the mix. Why the filmmakers decided to start overhauling the story and add entirely new major characters is beyond me; perhaps they thought they were updating it somehow. Plot holes exist in abundance, as do a few utterly inexplicable scenes which feel like they have nothing to do with the rest of the film.Now, if all this sounds like it doesn’t have much to do with the 1973 film, let alone the novel, you’re right. Both Forsyth and Zinnemann were reportedly extremely unhappy with this remake and asked that their names be removed from the credits. They also demanded that the film’s title be changed from the original “The Day of the Jackal” to play down any connection with the 1973 film.The best that can be said about “The Jackal” is that it’s not a complete failure, as it maintains a reasonable level of suspense, but it simply cannot be compared to the 1973 film. Viewers are advised to skip this ill-advised remake and stick with the original.
Review by Kevin Killian for The Jackal (Combo Blu-ray and Standard DVD) [Blu-ray]
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Michael Caton-Jones is one of those directors who never makes a really good movie, but usually there’s something interesting about them. Actors must love him because he’s certainly lured a lot of the best into his productions. Maybe that’s his weakness, a penchant for big names and not really being able to offer them proper vehicles for their talents. They wind up overacting, out of control. DOC HOLLYWOOD is a good example. Cute premise, appealing stars, and what happens? Caton-Jones fails to lift it out of routine romantic comedy. He had an attractive cast, and a fantastic soundtrack, in SCANDAL, the 1989 film of the Profumo/Christine Keeler affair, but it just sat there and failed to give off sparks. MEMPHIS BELLE was more of the same, a war picture that did not revive the war picture as it was meant to. ROB ROY was an aimitation of BRAVEHEART and CITY BY THE SEA–well, what the devil was that anyhow? Caton-Jones had a real success with THIS BOY’S LIFE, in which he uncovered layers of talent in the young Leo DiCaprio, but one is not surprised he is now directing the BASIC INSTINCT sequel RISK ADDICTION. I bet it’s a pip.
However, THE JACKAL isn’t half bad and in some ways it might be the best of the bunch. Again the enormous cast of talented actors, among them the amazing Diane Venora (of Michael Mann fame) here going all Russian and Ninotchka is some wonderful outfits and the frosty, wet look of one torn between allegiances. Sidney Poitier is in it too, sort of a waste of Poitier’s once great talent. Really anybody could have played the part. Richard Gere strikes all the right notes and plays an IRA terrorist, Declan, with a heart of gold and smart as all get out, who helps the USA solve the problem of who will the Mafia send to kill the first lady. (I know, what a ridiculous story, and in such bad taste in our age of terror.) Still Gere is terrific and makes all the right deductions and eventually we begin to realize that none other than Bruce Willis is really evil Carlos, the original Jackal, the hit man beyond compare.
When one compares this film to the original, Apollonian classic made by Fred Zinnemann in the 1970s, one realizes that perhaps they changed De Gaulle to the First Lady because focus groups were employed to find out that nowadays no one knows who De Gaulle was, and presumably everyone knows the First Lady. How stupid! For “First Lady” Tess Harper, once an important actress in US cinema, this was her last movie of the 1990s, and in fact her final studio picture (since then she has appeared in one obscure indie after another. And yet THE JACKAL is an appealing mess of a film, everything but the kitchen sink makes an appearance, and then, around reel eight, there’s a kitchen sink! You’ve got to love it.
Review by for The Jackal (Combo Blu-ray and Standard DVD) [Blu-ray]
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standard far-fetched action flic – Richard Gere so-so, Bruce Willis completely mis-cast, only bright light was Diane Venora as hard-nosed former KGB agent – anyone who thinks this is as good as the original “Day of the Jackal” is a moron