How do you stop an assassin who has no identity?
Bruce Willis is The Jackal - the greatest assassin in history - out to eliminate a top us government official. Declan Mulqueen (Richard Gere), an imprisoned underground operative, is the only man who can stop him. Now, the Deputy Director of the FBI, (Sidney Poitier) is taking the biggest risk of all... he's releasing one criminal to stop another in this terrifically explosive, totally intriguing sophisticated suspense thriller.
Written by Chuck Pfarrer, based on The day of the Jackal by Kenneth Ross, filmed in 1973, directed by Michael Caton-Jones.
Special Agent Matti
Oh dear, no matter how hard they tried to bring this into the 90s by introducing Bill Clinton, mobile phones and the internet, The Jackal still echoes down the decades like a slice of leftover 70s meatloaf that somehow got left under grandma's sofa.
With all the plausibility for which the 70s are renown, everyone just happens to run into the person they are looking for across three continents. There is some bad make-up, some bad accents (Diane Venora's vodka Valentina is fab, however) and plenty of bad hair. Have I mentioned the bad dialogue yet?
On the plus side, there is lots of 90s-style violence. Sidney Poitier is as striking and original an actor as he was when I first saw him in To sir, with love (one of the greatest films of all time) and Diane Venora is a major bitch. Cool.
It was a slightly interesting way to pass 119 minutes, and relatively enjoyable, but don't expect any earth-shattering revelations or brilliant innovations.
MA 15+ (High level violence, medium level coarse language)
119 minutes (1:59 hours)
DVD rental: 20 March 2002