U.S. Marshals

If you can tolerate Gerard's smugness, and get through the slow beginning, the movie rewards you with a lot of action, intrigue, and chases. Of course, we know how it is going to end, but that's okay because this is an action film, not a mystery. The actors do a good job, but Downey Jr. plays it a little too stiffly.

U.S. Marshals is the sequel to The Fugitive, but feels more like a remake. Again a victim of injustice is improperly imprisoned, this time Wesley Snipes in the Harrison Ford role. He's not a surgeon, but a deep undercover spy, the victim of a frame-up of an undisclosed nature. A catastrophic accident frees him (this time a plane crash) and again Tommy Lee Jones is sent to hunt him down. Big-budget, good special effects, A-list actors doing their jobs well; still U.S. Marshals fails to make a big impact. The first quarter starts out great, but by the end of the movie the plot devices are becoming very routine. Not a rip-off, but only C+ to me.

Okay, so "U.S.Marshalls" is basically just a remake of "The Fugitive". As such, it received lukewarm to cool reviews when it was in the theaters, unjustifiedly so, I think. Although the plot line is a ripoff of the earlier movie, this one does well in keeping us in suspense as to the story behind the central character, and the action is exciting and well-paced. Tommy Lee Jones of course "makes" the film, accompanied by the same cast of deputies as in the earlier movie. There are even "toppers" for the bus crash/train wreck and famous swan dive from the earlier movie. This is a very good escapist action flick.

I have never seen The Fugitive which is the predecessor to this film, but what I saw in U.S. Marshals, I don't think The Fugitive could be any better. U.S. Marshals is the action/ thriller film and fan of the genre would drool over.

The now Chief Deputy Marshal Samuel Gerard is once again after an escaped fugitive. Mark Sheridan has escaped from a plane wreck and is on the run for a crime he did not commit and Gerard, with his team, is close behind. Sheridan must find a way to avoid the Marshals and find out who really committed the crime he has been framed for. The action is well placed coming in short spurts (except for maybe the plane wreck) and works exceptionally well with the story.

The acting is exceptionally well done with Jones and Snipes giving some of there best performers in a long time. Tommy Lee Jones is quick thinking and likable in his role as Gerard and eventually works into be your favorite character. Snipes is only seen in short spirits until about the last 20 minutes which adds to the effect of him being evasive to the Marshalls. However, in his short scenes, he is able to fit into the role with relative ease.

The action sequences, as I said, is very well done and never over done. They are fast-paced and well acted. The special effects are also quite believable. With the excellent acting, gripping plot, and fast paced action sequences, the two hours fly by and make for a very enjoyable film.

3 1/2/5 Stars

I avoided this for years because it looked like a useless remake. However, I had forgotten that I thought The Fugitive was a useless remake of the TV series until I was dragged to it and found…a fine, suspenseful feature filled with a plethora of colorful characters. So, I should have been tuned in more to my own personal history, but so it goes….I now have watched U.S. Marshalls a number of times, and I have to say the two companion films match each other in quality.

The pacing is fast without being frenetic. The use of repetition, i.e., recurring motifs such as Kimball diving off a dam to safety & Sheridan swinging down to hop a commuter train, work well – though they could have been disastrous. The large cast is compelling down to the smallest roles (similar to The Fugitive in that regard). Jones, Snipes, and Downey all show range in their parts…Downey, as always, illustrates why he is one of the best of his generation. And some of the secondary roles shine, in particular Tom Wood as Deputy Marshall Noah Newman. He receives more screen time than in the predecessor; and he makes use of it well. He has one of "those acting moments" in a confrontation with Downey's character: his intense expression of simultaneous fear & anger is a plum bit of acting chops. Like other IMDb readers, I wonder what has happened with this good actor. No screen credits since 2000. Stage work? Left the biz? If the former, and he's in NYC, then we'll probably see him on a Law & Order episode one of these days!

I recently found a DVD with tons of extras on it – but I have not as yet delved into them. I look forward to doing that, as I do another viewing of the film.