6/10 - has its merits, but is fairly mediocre
It was decent.
"YOU MANIACS! YOU BLEW IT UP! Ah, damn you! GOD DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!"
Basically what ultimately kills this movie is that it's completely by the numbers and average. Sure Bruce Willis is great fun to watch as a cold blooded sociopath but everything outside of Willis' scenes are a complete bore. Richard Gere is totally unbelieveable as a former member of the IRA and his accent comes pretty close to be as bad as Nic Cage's in Con Air. I was surprised at how poor Gere came off in this film as he was pretty damn good in Internal Affairs but just drops the ball here. Also, nothing really happens in the movie just Willis walking around making plans and randoming killing here and there while Gere and the good guys just sit around and talk ALOT! There's a good movie in here but instead of adding more intrigue or plot twist it's just all routine stuff. Simply put outside of Willis it's BORING.
shareI agree. If this movie had been a straight remake with Willis (who was very good IMO), and Sidney Poitier and Diane Venora splitting up the Michael Lonsdale role, with maybe a few action scenes thrown in, this could have been a solid film. Awful accent aside, the whole Gere character is absolutely stupid and insipid (how is this guy essential to the investigation? Oh, because he has a grudge against the Jackal), particularly the parts with the ETA terrorist girl who conveniently shows up out of nowhere in the last scene. Even more than the dumb stuff with the remote-controlled chain gun, that's what did the movie in for me.
"I do NOT want your tawdry tales of office lust infecting my newsroom!"