I may be wrong or misinformed, but I always thought the last two months of the year were for possible Oscar contenders and that the summer was for action/thriller schlock.

Whatever the reason for The Jackal’s release date, it still delivers nothing new in high-tech suspense, but does offer a lot of mindless, slow-motion shots of the title character sadistically turning around. Ooh.

The Jackal (Bruce Willis) is an icy, highly technological assassin hired by a Russian gangster to kill the director of the FBI in retaliation for the death of his brother. When the FBI learns of the assassination attempt, they hire none other than Declan Mulqueen (Richard Gere), an IRA terrorist, who, apparently, unlike anyone else on the planet, can identify the cold-hearted killer.

Advertisement

We watch the Jackal move his cool-looking assassination weapon from Russia to Canada to the United States, and, in the process, donning about a million disguises assuming just as many identities to elude Mulqueen and the FBI.

On a very big whim, Mulqueen figures out who the Jackal’s real target is, and the resulting final action sequence is really exciting for about 65 seconds.

Gere is actually pretty good with an Irish accent as compared with the 50 other accents we see warbled throughout the entire film.

And I have to give the filmmakers credit for the very cool Russian character Major Koslova (Diane Venora). It was good to finally see an interesting woman character without faultless features, and I was disappointed when I saw her chance of showing up in any possible sequels is a big, fat zero percent.

It was funny at times to see Willis in some of his character’s get-ups, but as an elusive, emotionless killer he hardly fits the bill.

If the film looks at all appealing, rent the 1973 original The Day of the Jackal, because The Jackal will make you stupider like it did to I.