Thank goodness for Bruce Willis. For a long while, until he's brought down to earth, he's the only reason to keep watching this seriously under-powered revamp of the far superior 1974 film The Day of the Jackal. Our attention is never drawn to the same extent to Richard Gere, with a tacky Irish accent, as the ex-IRA long-term prisoner assigned to stopping Willis' international assassin from carrying out a hit on a top Pentagon target. After a hilariously inept beginning in 'Moscow', involving badly played Russians in a ludicrous 'B' picture set-up, the film delivers the action goods in spurts but never in spades. Scripter Chuck Pfarrer also wrote that all-time turkey Navy Seals and neither his dialogue nor plot developments here are at all convincing. Notably, Willis' plan seems far too clever and foolproof to be foiled; nor can we believe perfectionist Willis giving Gere a clue which leads him to the target.

©ipc tx. Film content from TVTimes