Based loosely on Fred Zinnemann's 1973 British-French thriller "The Day of the Jackal"--about the intricate plan to assassinate French leader Charles De Gaulle on the Champs Elysees--Michael Caton-Jones's film plays by the numbers. Annoyingly enough, it recycles the age-old flaw of so many murder plots: when the villain gets the drop on the pursuers, he could easily go away the winner, but takes so much time meditating on the imminent murder he is himself deleted. Despite its formulaic format and absence of witty dialogue "The Jackal" has some things going for it, notably the weapon which the title character uses to execute his target and the disguises he assumes to get into the United States and work his way to the victim's zone.

The story opens in Moscow where a group of Russian militia together with agents from the American FBI raid a night club and kill a Mafia chieftain who, in a most uncool manner curses out the officials before his public. Determined to get revenge on the United States for its part in the slaying of this gangster, his brother hires the Jackal (Bruce Willis) to take out a prominent target in the U.S.--$35 million before, an equal amount after the execution. Director Michael Caton- Jones has quite a bit of fun dressing Willis up in an assortment of wigs and mustaches, all designed to ease his way into the U.S. and manipulate his victims. In some scenes Willis is unrecognizable with thick mustache, five-day growth of beard and long hair, in others he is his usual handsome self though he switches from gray hair to light brown to dark coloring. Caton-Jones has much less fun with the good guy, Declan Mulqueen (Richard Gere), an IRA terrorist being held in a maximum security prison, who is offered the chance for either a pardon or a transfer to a country-club jail if he will assist the FBI in tracking down the Jackal. Gere goes through the motions mechanically, holding on to his Irish brogue throughout the movie, but otherwise coming across as a colorless individual who never shows the passion he should about gaining revenge on the criminal who at one time shot his girl friend, killing her fetus.

"The Jackal" from time to time draws on the 007 genre, apparently filmed in Moscow, London, Montreal, and Washington, highlighting the killer's intricate strategy in sneaking into the U.S.--by flying to Montreal with a false Canadian passport, buying an expensive boat, and sailing as part of the Mackinaw-Chicago race. Equally amusing is his purchase of a super gun which can shoot several rounds per second and discharge minor missiles as well. At one point he coats the back of his van with a deadly poison, which, when touched by one of his enemies, causes the man's gruesome and violent death.

Diane Venora plays the most captivating character, a rough-tough Moscow agent with pronounced facial scars who, if not mercifully shot in this movie would surely have been done in by lung cancer. When she is not huffing and puffing on a cigarette she is busy lighting another. You wonder how much the tobacco industry contributed to the making of this movie: why else provide the mostly young audience with such a chain-smoking role model?

For all we know, weapons such as the one used by the Jackal exist today, but they are most likely in the hands of the governments of the great powers than in those of an individual. Willis gets to send out a great deal of firepower by simply tapping a few keys on his laptop, giving new meaning to those ads in Tuesday's New York Times for ever-more- powerful computers.