U.S. Marshals (1998)

Undescribable Perfection

Absolutely Fantastic

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

When two top DDS government agents are gunned down; the third is set up to take the blame. Mark Sheridan( Wesley Snipes) is a tow truck driver in Chicago. On a call he gets into a bad accident. A gun is found at the scene in his vehicle. When he gets out of the hospital, he is arrested for a double murder in N.Y.. He is questioned, booked, and on his way to federal prison, VIA U.S. Marshal Plane. On the plane a Chinese prisoner tries to kill Sheridan; but Sheridan is prepared. An explosive the guy was going to use blows a hole in the plane. The plane goes down, and eventually ends up in a lake. Aboard the plane is U.S. Marshal, Sam Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones); and several other Marshal's. After the plane goes down Gerard catches Sheridan trying to escape. He gets Sheridan to help him; while Gerard is helping free the prisoners to safety. Eventually Sheridan escapes, and the hunt for a fugitive gets underway.Gerard and his team pursue Sheridan from Illinois, though Kentucky and eventually to N.Y.C.. While in Kentucky an agent from the D.D.S. John Royce( Robert Dowey Jr.) is sent in to help with the case. Gerard and Royce eventually find Sheridan's girl, Marie(Irene Jacob). They talk to her but isn't saying much. As the evidence comes in Sheridan's true Identity is reveled. Sheridan is an Ex-Marine( Black Ops) who worked for the DDS agency in the past. As the evidence is reviewed and reviewed of the night of the shooting, Gerard notices something. It appears the shooting was in self-defense and Sheridan was set up to take the fall. That same agency, The DDS, has been selling Top Secret information to the Chinese. While in New York Sheridan rents an apartment, sets up high tech equipment to monitor four locations. He monitors the the equipment for several days. Eventually he finds out who sets him up and why then the chase returns back to Chicago. As the chase continues back to Chicago more secrets are reveled. Noah Neuman is shot and killed; and Gerard is very emotional. When Gerard finds Sheridan trying to flee on a freight liner, he tries to kill him. Now caught; Sheridan is in federal custody at the hospital, trying to recuperate from injuries. Once there Gerard and Royce get to talking and Gerard notices something, and leaves. In the end the puzzle is complete and the true killer among other things is reveled.I enjoyed this movie a lot along with The Fugitive. As one who pursued Criminal Justice as a career, this film knocks it out of the park. It shows all angles, not just some of law enforcement. I'm also glad that the U.S. Marshal's got noticed in the film industry. U.S. Marshal's is still one of my favorite films, and always will be.Tommy Lee Jones-ROX

It's not hard to see what attracted Robert Downey Jr to 'US Marshals' his career had been in free fall since his Oscar nominated role in 'Chaplin' six years earlier. So teaming up with Tommy Lee Jones (returning to his Oscar winning role) in a sequel to 'The Fugitive' probably seemed like a good idea. With the Harrison Ford story neatly wrapped up at the end of 'The Fugitive' the sequel focuses on Lee Jones's character US Marshall Sam Gerrard. Gerard is accompanying a planeload of convicts from Chicago to New York. The plane crashes, and murderer Mark Sheridan (Wesley Snipes) escapes. But when Diplomatic Security Agent John Royce (Robert Downey Jr) is assigned to help Gerard recapture Sheridan, it becomes obvious he is not just your average escaped convict.One of the things that disappointed me with this was Lee Jones's character seemed to be there for comic relief in the first half of the movie. Wesley Snipes is more of an action man, than Ford's everyman but it's no bad thing. Downey Jr was OK, Joe Pantoliano once again offers superb support. A massive drop in quality from the first movie, as this was only just watchable, and I'll probably never bother to watch it again!!

While not an awful movie, "US Marshals" feels a little bit derivative and worn out. It follows the grand footprints of it's technically better and more gripping older sibling, "The Fugitive". While Tommy Lee Jones sparkled and stole the show in the earlier film, he is the focus of this newer installment. His comic relief in Marshals becomes muted, and storyline is rehashed. Wesley Snipes co-stars as the newer "Fugitive" and much of the movie is by-the-numbers. The drama and mystery is easily guessed unfortunately. The music too is tedious. However you could do a lot worse with Jones keeping many scenes afloat and in-command. Maybe worthwhile if you like Jones. Robert Downey Jr. has a lower profile role especially compared to newer movies we've seen him in. 6/10

What do you do when you release a movie and the co-star's character makes just as much of an impact on viewers as the main actor? Obviously you find a way to exploit the situation by coming up with another project to put that actor and character into. That's exactly what producers of "The Fugitive" did with Tommy Lee Jones' law enforcer, Sam Gerard.You shift the focus from the fugitive and place it on the men put in charge of catching him. They didn't want to veer too far off the beaten path, so you still have to have an innocent man running for his life and he has to have some type of star power. When "U.S. Marshals" came out in 1998, Wesley Snipes was a hot commodity and seemed like the perfect choice to play the role of the sympathetic man on the lamb.As an action film, this gets the job done. It does its best to be as good as "The Fugitive" but not get stuck trying to one-up it or be better. There's the obvious attempt at making the wreck in "U.S. Marshals" more of a spectacle by having the vehicle be an airplane instead of a passenger train. Besides that, it just seemed like director Stuart Baird wanted to make a good old fashioned crime caper with some mystery injected. Most viewers might be lost as to what the actual "item" causing all the trouble or the motivation for the whole movie is. All anyone really wants to know by the end of the film is if Snipes is innocent and, if so, who is guilty.