 Tagline: How do you stop an assassin who has no identity? 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 assignment. Storyline: In Moscow, the FBI and their Russian counterpart, the MVD, are working on a joint mission to apprehend Russian mobster Ghazzi Murad specifically for the murder of Mayor Nikolai Semankho. During the arrest, they are forced to kill Ghazzi. Ghazzi's brother, Terek Murad, also a mobster, begins his own form of deadly retribution against the MVD for Ghazzi's death. But the FBI and MVD also get wind that Terek has hired an assassin by the code name Jackal to carry out a hit on a high profile but unknown American target for the Americans sticking their nose in Russian affairs. Intelligence points to that target being Donald Brown, the Director of the FBI. The Jackal is known only by name and reputation but no one in authority knows who he is, what he looks like or if he even really exists. They learn of only one person alive who they know has had ties to the Jackal: former Basque separatist Isabella Zanconia, whose whereabouts are unknown. As such, the FBI and MVD decide to turn to the one ... Written by Huggo Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Kenneth Brown, April 27, 2010 Henry Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West. Denzel Washington in Training Day. Edward Norton in Primal Fear. Kathy Bates in Misery. Robin Williams in Insomnia. Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs. Tom Hanks in The Road to Perdition. Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction. Tom Cruise in Collateral. Brad Pitt in The Assassination of Jesse James. And, most recently, Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. I don't know what it is that inspires great actors to dance with the devil in the pale moonlight, but it has produced some of cinema's most deliciously devilish baddies. Bruce Willis' first major stab at big-screen villainy -- director Michael Caton-Jones' The Jackal -- isn't nearly as meaty or, for that matter, memorable, nor has it withstood the test of time, but fans of '90s action thrillers shouldn't be so eager to pass it by. Cheesy? At times. Dated? Most definitely. Flawed? Now more than ever. But is it entertaining? In a word, absolutely. Based on the acclaimed novel by Jane Austen, The Jackal tells the wind-swept love story of a young Victorian woman of privilege who... eh, who am I kidding? The Jackal is a fun but formulaic game of cat and mouse that pits an icy-veined American assassin against a former IRA sniper. The assassin, known only as the Jackal (Bruce Willis), has never been photographed, caught on tape, or officially identified; a problem that leaves the FBI scrambling for answers when they learn the agency's Director (John Cunningham) is being targeted by the Russian mafia. After exhausting all options, Deputy Director Carter Preston (Sidney Poitier) and Russian Major Valentina Koslova (Diane Venora) track down the only man who can identify the Jackal, a prisoner and eagle-eyed Irish gunman named Declan Mulqueen (Richard Gere). Racing to stop the Jackal from exacting the Russian mob's vengeance, Preston, Koslova, and Mulqueen have to uncover the assassin's whereabouts, discover how he plans to reenter the United States, and stop him before he can cash in on his contract. Meanwhile, the Jackal hires a local criminal (Jack Black) to construct a strange device, acquire a minivan and a long-range weapon, contend with a gang of international hijackers, and complete his mission on schedule. It all leads to a bullet-riddled endgame that leaves no one unscathed. Whether Willis is sweating beneath a bushy faux-stache, waddling into a warehouse with a pillow strapped around his waist, or poisoning a tailing henchman with a cool but oh-so-convenient can of spray-on death, The Jackal revels in all the chintzy genre conventions of the '90s. Screenwriter Chuck Pfarrer smears action into his script whenever tensions begin to lag, giving Caton-Jones ample opportunity to drop Willis in as many disguises as possible. Gere chews through page after page of dense dialogue with lightning-tongued finesse, softening his consonants and sharpening his vowels until settling on an accent straight out of a Dublin souvenir shop. Venora, fresh off her heart-wrenching performance in Heat, works overtime to remind us that her character is a very Russian fish out of very Russian waters. She chomps down on her lines with the heavy-handed urgency of an amateur, undermining Koslova's tragic roots with every lumbering word. And yet the film's most troublesome qualities prove to be its most endearing. Willis, Gere, and Venora may draw their share of laughs some thirteen years after The Jackal scurried out of theaters, but they also sell the weight of an otherwise weightless plot. Willis winds his stone-cold villain as tightly as he once wound his high-strung John McClaine, forging a legitimately menacing antagonist in the process. (His scenes with Black are worth the price of admission alone.) Elsewhere, Gere taps into a welcome vulnerability that allows Mulqueen's backstory to fuel his every word and expression. Like Poitier, Gere moves with poise, precision, and purpose, elevating the material even when it's determined to flounder. And Koslova? Once you get past her iron accent and rubbery facial scars, you'll find a more thoughtful performance than her nightclub tussle and subsequent boys-club antics initially suggest. If only the same could be said of Caton-Jones stiffly staged action beats and Pfarrer's thin string of clues. Mulqueen is released from prison to provide first-hand information to the authorities, but he doesn't offer up any unobtainable theories or sharp analysis that a headstrong FBI agent wouldn't presume if presented with the same evidence. The Jackal will be using multiple identities, sneaking into the country by taking advantage of holes in border security, and looking for a way to transport a weapon he's assembling? Tell us something we don't know. Granted, Pfarrer goes to great lengths to reiterate the fact that Mulqueen is one of the only people who've seen the assassin's face, but more valuable deductions and relevant experience would have at least made the procedural aspects of the film more engaging. (Although Gere's reaction to every minivan he spots is priceless, almost as priceless as Mark Walberg's reaction to a plastic houseplant in The Happening.) Other plot holes and blind-faith contrivances abound, and several second-act developments feel tacked on and, frankly, unnecessary. But for every misstep, Caton-Jones and Pfarrer take a step in the right direction. The Jackal's wits, wiles, and weaponry are certainly formidable, Mulqueen becomes a more and more intriguing protagonist as the story meanders along, and the climactic assassination attempt (as well as its smart plot twist, ensuing chase sequence, and well-conceived closing scenes) allow the film to end on a high note. The Jackal hasn't aged as well as other '90s action thrillers and its flaws are more obvious now than ever. Even so, there's still some life in its crumbling bones... at least enough to make it worth renting. The Jackal is an entertaining little late-90s diversion that, guilty pleasure or no, deserves to survive the harsh terrain of the 21st century. Is its action as tight and thrilling as the decade's best? Not quite. Are its performances the stuff of legend? Hardly. Is its script inventive and unpredictable? Erm... maybe I should be asking different questions. How often do you get to see Bruce Willis don six disguises in a minute? How often do you get to see Jack Black scream bloody murder at the sight of a mangled stump? How often do you get to watch Richard Gere struggle with an Irish accent while Sidney Poitier, J.K. Simmons, a cossack-throated Diane Venora, and a bleach-haired Willis stare on? Simply put, The Jackal is a tasty slice of nostalgia sure to slap a grin on your face. Its Blu-ray release? Not so much. While a relatively satisfying DTS-HD Master Audio track will prove to be a boon for fans, the release is hindered by an average video transfer and an arguably non-existent supplemental package (the only special features to be found are on the standard DVD side of Universal's BD-59 Flipper disc). Ah well, if you absolutely must own a copy of The Jackal, this is definitely the version to own. [CSW] -3.2- This film does suffer slightly from continuity slippage within the plot's development which could perhaps be explained if some of the deleted scenes were added back. Bruce Willis makes a great villain, so much so that I found myself routing for him a lot of the time. This does make a nice contemporary approach to the classic story line on the conspiracy to assassinate France's Charles De Gaulle. The actions and suspense keeps you going right to the end. [V3.5-A4.0] VC-1 Cast Notes: Bruce Willis (The Jackal), Richard Gere (Declan Mulqueen), Sidney Poitier (Carter Preston), Diane Venora (Valentina Koslova), Mathilda May (Isabella), J.K. Simmons (Witherspoon), Richard Lineback (McMurphy), John Cunningham [I] (Donald Brown), Jack Black [I] (Lamont), Tess Harper (The First Lady), Leslie Phillips [I] (Woolburton), Stephen Spinella (Douglas), Sophie Okonedo (Jamaican Girl), David Hayman (Terek Murad), Steve Bassett [I] (George Decker). IMDb Rating (07/06/17): 6.4/10 from 91,842 users IMDb Rating (03/14/15): 6.3/10 from 80,283 users IMDb Rating (04/10/13): 6.2/10 from 62,295 users IMDb Rating (11/23/11): 6.0/10 from 43,518 users IMDb Rating (01/14/02): 5.6/10 from 5,886 users
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