Evidently, the public needs an update of the 1973 political thriller Day Of The Jackal that substitutes high-tech hardware and sexed-up gore for the original film's complexity. In the dumbed-down The Jackal, a brilliant, chameleon-like mercenary assassin (Bruce Willis) is hotly pursued by a deputy FBI director (Sidney Poitier) and a puckish ex-IRA operative on furlough (Richard Gere), one of the few who has seen The Jackal and survived. Fastidiously cloaking his identity with disguises and forged passports, and traveling in nondescript minivans and a sailboat, The Jackal makes his way to Washington to take out a high-ranking official with an impressive bit of gadgetry involving a laptop computer and a Gatling gun. With all the expense and star power, and some sharp moments of suspense, it's too bad no one stopped to think of one basic thing: If there were people still living who could recognize The Jackal by sight, why didn't he have extensive plastic surgery, or at least wear a false beard and thick glasses every now and then? Other ridiculousness: Gere's almost telepathic knowledge of where The Jackal will turn up next and who he's after, characters marked for death by the audience long before The Jackal gets to them, and an inane subplot involving Gere's old flame and comrade-in-arms. There's a lesson to be learned here: If you're going to make a film about an ingenious killer, make sure there are no gaping chasms of illogic in your premise. At best, The Jackal is an uninspired, by-the-numbers action thriller.