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The Jackal - Collector's Edition

The Jackal - Collector's Edition

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $13.48
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Zip this one back up.
Review: Dont you just HATE it when the good-guy just "knows" everything!? The one star is for the nifty cannon. Dont waste your time.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Boring and Phony; Not a Remake but a Cheap Knockoff
Review: The Jackal is credited to the same writer, Kennth Ross, who did the screenplay for the vastly superior Day of the Jackal. Either he couldn't write as convincing a story the second time around or the remake suffers because the original was directed by a really competent director, Fred Zinneman. Except for the gunfire scenes, the movie is uninteresting; the clever tricks and techniques the original Jackal used to escape detection become hackneyed and unconvincing in this remake. In fact, the whole premise is absurd. A cannon in the back of a minivan? Give me a break. Perceptive viewers will note that the target of the assassin is the First Lady of the United States who in this movie is a blonde. We know from Die Hard with a Vengeance that Bruce Willis doesn't like Hillary Clinton; here he gets to attempt to kill her, I guess.

More phoniness: Richard Gere tries to do an Irish accent and nice location scenes filmed in what is obviously the Montreal subway system are stupidly relabled with signs for the Washington, D.C. metro, and those Washington, D.C. signs aren't even accurate. Didn't we have enough of these phony Washington, D.C. sets in Die Hard II where they planted a church at Dulles Airport and used phones labeled "Pacific Bell"?

Save your money on this rip-off stinker. Instead watch the original Day of the Jackal for a really interesting battle of wits between the assassin and the police forces hunting him.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Please stop the remakes
Review: $70 million to whack out the head of the FBI? The Russian gangsters in this clinker obviously don't shop around for hired killers. As if hearing Gere's Irish accent isn't bad enough, we must bear two hours of Bruce Willis' deadpan wig-changing killer. Argh! And why won't a rifle, a bomb, poison, something a BIT simpler be employed as the murder weapon? What's with that gun? This film is ridiculous, period.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Mmmm....Not bad.
Review: Not bad spy thriller about agent Bruce Willis who has several identities. Explcitly violent.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A good watch for Gere/Willis fans
Review: Who cares if this isn't a boring Streep/Costner movie. It's a Willis action movie for gosh sakes. If you like these type movies it's an acceptible 2 hours. If you don't, don't bother. I never saw the "original" or read the book....but who cares? Turn your brain off and enjoy the ride.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Harrison Ford should have been in this one!
Review: I have never seen "Day of the Jackal", so I do not have that reference point. What I do have, and I think it's worth something, is a history of watching Gere, Willis, Cruise, Van Dam and a host of others who have acted in classic espionage/terrorist/suspense movies. If I may be so bold, I would recast this movie and beef up the story line, which I feel is rather flat. This type movie is definitely not a Bruce Willis thing: he's into A-C-T-I-O-N, and he's definitely out of his element here. It's rather interesting to watch his various disguises, but other than his rather tasteless massacre of the kid who made the cannon stand, there's really not much for him to do. Replace him with "Goldfinger" or a "Dr. No" type character. I enjoy Richard Gere a great deal and have seen most of his movies since "An Officer and a Gentleman". He's a very good actor, but just cannot pull off being an IRA terrorist, let alone being Irish. He stands out like a turkey in white hen house. Replace him with Sean Bean, the Irish terrorist who stalks Harrison Ford's family in "Patriot Games". I believe he could pull it off. Next is Sidney Portier: he just isn't given much to work with. His character is almost superfluous. He's given very few decent lines and, again, a very spectre-like plot. Given some beefing up for his character's role by rewriting some of the screenplay, I think he'd come out OK. The glue and the gem to this movie, I think, is Diane Venora. She is very believable as an "ex" KGB officer (if there is such a thing). She is cold-thinking, virtually emotionless, and trusts no one, as a good KGB high-ranking officer should be. She does show a spark of emotion for the Irishman toward the end and I almost wish she had made it, but that would be too maudlin in a thriller type movie. Finally, I think Fred Dalton Thompson ought to be in here some place, even though he is now a Senator. I think he's superb in the roles he's been given in the past, even though they've been brief. Besides, he's from my state and I like the guy, what can I say?

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: COMPARE
Review: Compare this with the original 'The Day of the Jackal," and I think you'll see the former is a far better film than this one. This one did have exciting moments though and deserves a rental, Gere and Willis are always worth a look. Another bit of gratis advice is always to get the DVD version of a film if possible.

I am getting impatient with critics who seem to be ready to shoot from the hip and blast the remake of a "classic" (Day of the Jackals qualifies here).

Look at them without prejudice. I think this applies to the 1998 Psycho too.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Based on better form "Day of the Jackal"
Review: Although a great movie, "The Day of the Jackal" (the movei which the Jackal was based on) was better. It had a better plot and less killing. I would recommend "The Jackal" to anyone, but see "The Day of the Jackal" first.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome!
Review: This is one of the best movies I've ever seen, the acting is great, and the specail effects I've ever seen, well I'm no lenord maltin but this movie kicks a**! 5 stars for sure

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good Movie but bad ending
Review: The movie was very promising, I enjoyed it a lot to bad that in the end it had to be a Hollywood Ending.

****** SPOILER *****

If he as a killer would really be that clumpsy as he is in the end he would never have become number 1.


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