A loose remake of The Day of the Jackal, this was Sidney Poitier’s last movie, which makes me sad, as well as a movie that has an absolutely hilarious scene where Bruce Willis uses a remote controlled machine gun to turn Jack Black into hamburger.

You know who wasn’t pleased by this remake? Just about everyone involved with the original movie, including director Fred Zinnemann, author Frederick Forsyth, actor Edward Fox and producer John Woolf. They hated it so much that they filed an injunction to prevent Universal from using the original name and made the film use an “inspired by” credit.

I mean, how often how we wondered who would win in a fight, Willis or Richard Gere? But seriously, Willis is The Jackal, a killing machine, and Gere is Declan Joseph Mulqueen, an IRA sniper who may be the only man deadlier as an assassin.

Geeks like me went to see this movie because Gere’s lover Isabella Celia Zancona was played by Mathilda May from Lifeforce. Well, I also really liked Michael Caton-Jones’ Scandal, so that brought me in, same as when he made Basic Instinct 2. The script came from Chuck Pfarrer, who wrote Navy SEALs, Darkman, Hard Target and Barb Wire. All of those movies are more entertaining than this.

When Gere first appears, he has a mustache and goatee. He wanted to switch up his look, which upset  Universal, so that’s why there’s a scene where Gere asks for a razor after accepting the job. This is the absolute dumbest thing I’ve written in some time and I blame this movie.

The Mill Creek Epic Showdowns – 4 Action Movies set includes Kull the Conqueror, The Cowboy Way and End of Days. You can get it from Deep Discount.