Customer Reviews

U.S. Marshals (Special Edition)

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

this movie is a sequel of sorts to the fugitive,but works just as well
as a stand alone film.this time around the U.S Marshals are led once
again by Chief Deputy Marshal Samuel Gerard.(Tommy Lee Jones)but this
time they are chasing a much more dangerous prey,a robber and
murderer.but not just any murderer.this guy has some special
skills.Wesley Snipes plays the hunted this time around.Robert Downey Jr
plays a special agent assigned to assist Gerard and his team apprehend
the killer.Kate Nelligan plays Gerard's boss,and while she has little
more than a cameo,she really impressed me.she has some great screen
presence.Jones is also very good,as always and Downey adds some sleaze
to the proceedings(that's a good thing).Snipes is outstanding as the
pursued.as for the movie itself,the story is deeper and more
developed.there is quite a bit going on here.there's much more intrigue
and plot twists than in "The Fugitive".i also like that there is some
close quarter hand to hand combat in this movie,which "The Fugitive
didn't' have. it's a bit of a different movie than "The Fugitive",but
just as good.Stuart Baird directed this movie.he also helmed "Executive
Decision" and "Star Trek:Nemesis"both of which i enjoyed.if you enjoyed
those two films,you will probably like "U.S.Marshals".for me,this movie
is a 4/5.

Supposed to be a sequal to the amazing movie 'The Fugitive'...it falls a bit short in comparison.
Tommy Lee Jones is still as sassy as ever in U.S. Marshals - but it's a bit too predicable.
Still has some good suspense - which I do enjoy.

though it doesnt have the title The Fugitive 2...it takes another look at a wanted man who is framed for a murder he didnt committ...good and solid performances by Tommy Lee Jones(The Fugitive, The Hunted), Robert Downey, Jr.(Gothika, In Dreams) and the awesome Wesley Snipes(Blade 1 and II, ZigZag)...this came out in the same year his smash Blade did....and I always say..hey, thats the movie Snipes did before he did Blade...cool..anyway. the plane crash is good, chase scenes are good and the finale is down right Downey deadly..though lacking in some parts it picks it up with energy..for the fans of the stars or for whoever like The Fugitive with Harrison Ford. also starring Irene Jacobi(1995's Othello remake), Tom Wood(The Fugitive and Under Siege), Joe Pantoliano(The MAtrix, The Fugitive, Memento), Daniel Roebuck(Money Talks, Final Destination), Kate Nelligan(The Cider House Rules, Wolf), LaTanya Richardson(Lone Star,The Super), Michael Paul Chan(Spy Game, Batman Forever), Patrick Malahide(The Long Kiss Goodnight, The World Is Not Enough) and Rick Snyder(The Generals Daughter, The NEt)

They could have named this one the Fugitive II and gotten away with it. There was a slight lack of originality, but the spectacular cast pulls it off. Overall the movie was good. Tommy Lee Jones does a wonderful job and Robert Downey, Jr. was memorable as well. The comic relief was a must and was appreciated as it helped counterract the amazing suspense level present. I think I will add this one to my collection.

Yes, we all know about the spin off from The Fugitive but this film stands on it's own as a great movie. Tommie Lee Jones and Wesley Snipes are great adversaries. Morton Downey Jr. is a great addition to the cast as are several other established and up and coming actors. See the movie. You will not be sorry. But watch it all because you might not appreciate it fully if you only view bits at a time.

An ultimately futile attempt to make lightning strike twice, this so-called spinoff from 1993's blockbuster The Fugitive avoids the label of "sequel" by forging ahead without the first film's star, Harrison Ford. The idea is to showcase the return of Tommy Lee Jones in his Oscar-winning role as tenacious U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard, this time testing his mettle against a covert government operative (Wesley Snipes) accused of murdering two secret service attachés. Unfortunately, Jones and the entire cast have been trapped in a rambling plot, and the underdog status that made Ford such a compelling hero is sacrificed to an evenly matched and eventually tiresome game of cat and mouse, with a villain whose identity is far too predictable. With no dramatic buildup and several superfluous characters to distract its focus, the film's momentum plays out like a rote exercise compared to the high stakes of the earlier film.

Tired and tiresome.

Lemme get this straight. They remake the Fugitive with the Star Wars guy and everybody knows the one armed man did it. Everyone except Al Gore's very old undergrad roommate. No, this dude will go to the ends of the earth to get his man, taxpayer's rights and flower beds be darned.

So, the audience likes this creep so much, we get a sequel in which he, in an Arky accent, does a hard target search on every backrow, hedgerow, cornrow and Scott Turow to get his man, cost in dollars, lives and dignity be damned. Oh, yeah, one more thing, IT IS, AGAIN, THE WRONG FLOCKING GUY!!! We know that because he is a brother and this fossil apparently only shines when he is centeredly in the wrong. Does no one else find this a tad creepy?

Don't watch this, try something edifying like women's pro basketball. My public access channels run JUCO women's volleyball. Whoo Hoo!!! Good for hours at a time.

This has been a LawDog "I have not and never will see this movie" review. Not reviewed for typos.

Although I don't consider U.S. Marshals™ to be as good an outing as The Fugitive™ flick, it made a valiant and for the most part effective effort to match up to its predecessor. If you're lookin' for thrills, action, intrigue, Tommy Lee Jones chewin' the scenery with the same zeal and sense of fun as he did in the first movie and yadda yadda yadda and all those other bits o' hype & cliches you've already heard ad nauseam-- well, you might wanna watch The Fugitive™ first. And then if you like what'cha see there, you just might find this flick likable as well. And if you're thinkin' of buyin' this, just remember that for every copy of this that sells, co-star Robert Downey Jr. gets that much closer to payin' off his rehab tab! How's THAT for a humanitarian gesture, hmm?

Normally, I'd start out this paragraph with a brief synopsis of the flick. But for this review, I've decided to go the lazy route: if you want an overview of U.S. Marshals™' great and/or not-so-great moments, take a gander at the other customer reviews posted here. As for picture and sound quality, I found the former among of the sharpest and cleanest of the WB™'s DVD library, and the latter above-average.

The extra features included on this platter are somewhat sparse compared to most 'Special Edition' DVDs. As expected, the original theatrical trailer is included, as are a few TV spots. Then there's the text mini-bios of the principal cast and crew, as well as a text overview on the production and shooting of U.S. Marshals™. Also thrown in is a ten-minute-long mini-doc on the history of the U.S. Marshal Service. But the main attraction here is a nine-part look at the plane-crash sequence, featuring behind-the-scenes looks at the models, setups, and other things that were involved to create this moment of movie magic. If nothing else, this breakdown of one scene is definitely a must-see for the special-effects buff.

Finally, there's the director's commentary audio track. Unfortunately, I wasn't all that excited by Mr. Baird's discussion about the making of the film. His commentary for the most part revolved around the technical aspects of the movie, which I guess is understandable considering the fact he used to be a noted editor before he became a director. Also, his somewhat low-key and rather unemotional delivery made for a nearly-comatose listening experience. But on the upside, he doesn't really have too much to say anyway-- about two-thirds of the track doesn't even have any commentary on it at all!

Now it's time for me to slap an epilogue onto this bunch o' text, which I'll title 'The Big Gripe'. It's a gripe that I've brought up in just about every one of my previous reviews of DVDs released by Warner Bros™. But since my words apparently just ain't gettin' through to the right folks, I'm gonna bring it up again, and again, and again until someone finally takes a freakin' hint (you readin' this, Ted Turner?!)! What is this thing about WB™ platters that makes me almost go postal every time I think about it, you ask? Well, here's the deal: Why is Warner still putting their movie platters in cardboard snap cases, when just about every other studio uses plastic cases?! I dunno 'bout anybody else, but I'm more than willin' to lay down a few more shekels for a DVD cover that won't start to fall apart on me after a year! Is that too much to ask?!

'Late

It is an axiom that whenever Hollywood has done something right to create a hit movie, aside from a few notable exceptions, it is also an axiom that a sequel will be made that is noticeably inferior to the original. Director Anthony Davis used the acting talents of Tommy Lee Jones and Harrison Ford to create a new and visually entertaining, if not comparable, filmed version of THE FUGITIVE, based on the hit television series of the 1960s. This FUGITIVE was watchable, mostly because the audience could empathize if not sympathize with the doctor on the run. The follow up to THE FUGITIVE is the still visually entertaining but hollow U. S. MARSHALS.
U. S. MARSHALS is not, strictly speaking a sequel, no more so than Mickey Rooney was in the Andy Hardy series of the 1940s. What director Stuart Baird has done was to take one of the two protagonists from THE FUGITIVE and set him off on a new chase with a new fugitive. Now there is nothing inherently wrong with a cop-chasing-a-fugitive theme. That has been done many times, sometimes quite well. The problem here is that the movie was touted as a sequel to THE FUGITIVE. U. S. MARSHALS could easily have had a few modifications to eliminate any connection to THE FUGITIVE, and if it had, then it would have been forced to stand on its own feet. But because it is set in the world of Deputy Marshal Sam Gerard, comparisons are inevitable and unflattering. In any escape movie, the seeker must have a credible motivation for chasing the fugitive. Barry Morse, who played Lt. Philip Gerard in the television series, had tons of that as he saw it as his own personal failure that Richard Kimble escaped. Sam Gerard had somewhat less motivation in the first movie version, but because the movie boiled down to an exciting set piece of escapes involving more of personality than of athletic stunt filming, the audience was inclined to swallow Gerard's monomaniacal hunt for Kimble. In U. S. MARSHALS, there is simply no need for Gerard to get personally involved, since it was not his fault that the Wesley Snipes character escaped. As for Wesley Snipes, he was simply the wrong choice to play the man on the run. His forte is bashing athletic ability and sheer physical presence. David Janssen to a huge degree, and Harrison Ford to a lesser degree, personified the intellectual Everyman, caught not in a conspiracy as the Snipes persona is, but rather in having had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The viewer simply cannot connect to Snipes, who comes across as a CIA spook Rambo. The majority of the film is Snipes ducking in and out of danger using his superbly conditioned body with Gerard one step behind, never quite catching him. Gerard's earlier failure to catch Kimble was eminently forgivable. His current failure to catch Snipes exposes him an incompetent chaser of men, thus furthering the emotional distance between viewer and pursuer. Complicating matters is the subplot concerning Robert Downey, who plays a marshall who is in conflict with Gerard. Downey is revealed as some sort of turncoat or traitor who kills good guys but does so in a way that makes no sense. His stated motivation for his deceit was so full of holes that I was left gasping.
U. S. Marshals, then is a failure and stands as a beacon reminder that what worked once need not work again unless some intelligent thought is given as to why the characters do what they do. Gaudy special effects cannot compensate for lack of creativity. Hollywood seems to have a hard time learning this lesson.

I have both the Fugitive and U.S. Marshal's on video, and yes there are similarities (spectacular crash, from which convict escapes, then is chased after by a U.S. Marshal for the rest of the movie). Other than that I can't see any more similarities.
They're both great, and I don't think U.S. Marshal's is just a clone of the Fugitive, because it isn't. This movie is great and if you like action. you will enjoy this one.