Date: Fri 13-Mar-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: SHIRLE

Quick Words:

Playing-Jones-Marshals-Snipes

Full Text:

(rev "US Marshals" for Now Playing)

Now Playing-

"Marshals" Spends Too Much Time Running From Its Predecessor

By Trey Paul Alexander III

Last weekend, Titanic, which will soon overtake Star Wars as the biggest

money-making film in the US of all time, nearly had its hold on the box

office's top spot (where it has been perched for 12 consecutive weeks!)

wrested from it by U.S. Marshals, the sequel to 1993's Oscar-nominated

blockbuster, The Fugitive. However, the makers of U.S. Marshals are probably

less concerned with knocking Titanic off its pedestal than with capturing the

spirit (not to mention the grosses) of its predecessor. Alas, that is not to

be, despite the best efforts of Tommy Lee Jones and his cast of federal law

enforcement characters.

Jones, who won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Deputy Samuel Gerard in

The Fugitive, reprises his role and brings along with him the team of officers

that helped him hunt Harrison Ford's Dr Kimble of the first film. These

tenacious trackers are at it again, this time in hot pursuit of Mark Sheridan

(Wesley Snipes), a rogue government operative accused of assassinating two

fellow agents.

U.S. Marshals, currently playing in Danbury, takes an early misstep by

invoking the memory of the superior first film by practically reproducing the

whole opening act. Just as Dr Kimble gained his freedom via a spectacular

wreck of a prison transport, Sheridan escapes into the wilds when a plane

carrying him and other felons makes a fiery emergency descent into Tennessee.

Gerard, escorting another convict, just happens to be onboard, and when

Sheridan bolts, Gerard and his team hustle after him.

The crash sequence is convincingly staged by director Stuard Baird (Executive

Decision) , but much of the life is sucked from it because we intuit it's just

a paint-by-numbers rehash of the original's breath-taking escape scene. This

inferiority complex is not aided much by the plot, which casts Sheridan as a

patsy, an agent who was just doing his job and then found himself set up by

unseen forces. Sheridan proclaims he is innocent, and once he initially evades

Gerard and crew in the Tennessee swamp, he sets off to New York City to prove

his assertion.

Why did the screenwriter choose to emulate so closely the first film? Since

the returning U.S. marshals are obviously the heroes, why not make the

fugitive a bonafide villain this time around? Instead, the hunted is an

ambiguous figure who is obviously not a bad guy, but nevertheless far from

gaining our sympathies like dogged everyman, Dr Kimble.

At any rate, Baird rallies the troops during the middle portion of the movie.

He builds a satisfyingly vigorous pace as Gerard and company trace Sheridan's

steps and piece together the puzzle of truth behind the so-called cold blooded

assassin they are chasing. It's difficult to think of another recent movie in

which there was so much running and jumping, and Baird uses this to

effectively manufacture an adrenaline rush for the audience. He is also helped

immensely by his game cast, who so wholly throw themselves into this sequel

that they nearly will it into being a fulfilling Fugitive follow-up.

But the script eventually peters out on them and leaves viewers with an

anti-climatic climax. Jones, Snipes and the rest of the cast carry through to

the end, but the material just isn't there. However, bonus points go to the

creators for the addition of Robert Downey, Jr, playing a cocky, occasionally

abrasive government agent specially assigned to Gerard's team in the Sheridan

hunt, and the welcome Kate Nelligan as Gerard's director.

U.S. Marshals is rated PG-13 for violence (assorted gunplay) and profanity.

Baird does his best to maintain the level set by The Fugitive (that includes

no excessively graphic displays), but if there is a next time, let's hope the

writers get more creative.