DVD Reviews

The Jackal – Blu-ray Review

By Jeff Swindoll May 13, 2010, 16:35 GMT

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 ...more

A tale of two movies, one is a realistic look at an international terrorist and the other is a popcorn flick with some fudgy accents. Your mood will dictate which film you’ll watch, but my gut tells me to stick with the original. The redo might do in a pinch.

A joint mission by the American and Russian lead to the death of a mobster’s brother so the mobster decides to hire the Jackal (Bruce Willis) to avenge the death.

The Jackal is a shadowy assassin who has never been photographed or caught. Officials speculate that the target is FBI director Donald Brown (John Cunningham), so the hunt for the Jackal is on.

FBI deputy director Carter Preston (Sidney Poitier) and Russian major Valentina Koslova (Diane Venora) discover that there’s one man who could possibly identify the Jackal – Irish Republican Army sniper Declan Mulqueen (Richard Gere, in a dodgy accent). He had a relationship with a woman named Isabella (Mathilda May) who knows the identity of the Jackal.

Mulqueen is in prison and agrees to help to get himself out of prison but to also get revenge on the Jackal. However, the Jackal proves elusive and may have a higher target in mind than the director of the FBI.

The Jackal is based on the 1973 film Day of the Jackal directed by Fred Zinnemann (in turn based on the book by Frederick Forsyth). That film took an almost documentary-like look at the assassin and is actually close to a classic, if not one. I’d wager that The Jackal will not go down in anyone’s book as a classic or anywhere near one.

We do have Bruce Willis stepping into the villain’s shoes as the wily assassin, but Richard Gere’s Irish accent is one that you’ll have trouble keeping up with. It’s an enjoyable popcorn flick, despite taking some leaps of logic here and there. It does offer a nail-biting chase and ending. However, there’s always that on and off again accent from Gere (shades of Costner in Robin Hood).

Why didn’t they just write in the script that he’s an American soldier of fortune working for the IRA or some other way of explaining how he should just sound like Richard Gere?

Bruce Willis is actually pretty steely as the assassin and certainly comes off better than his counter-star. The redo is more of a distraction and if you’re looking for a better quality film you need to go back to the 1973 original. However, if you’re just looking for mindless, popcorn butter flavored distraction then this one may serve.

The Jackal is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (2.35:1). Special features are presented in standard definition. There’s a good reason for that since they’re only found on the other side of the disc, the DVD side of the disc. It’s a director’s commentary and making of, the Blu-ray side is BD-Live enhanced.

The Jackal fails when stack up against Zinnemann’s original, but its mindless fun if you’re in the mood. I still can’t get over Gere’s accent though.