Review of U.S. Marshals (1998) by Alvin Y — 15 Jul 2014

I'm pretty sure if this was a standalone film, while not excellent, I think it would have been better received than it was. It's only really a sequel because of one character that was involved, Samuel Gerard, the most popular character out of The Fugitive. It is interesting, if there was another one of these would it then be considered the Sam Gerard trilogy? As it stands its 'that sequel to The Fugitive that no one asked for'.

Wesley Snipes was good, or as good as he could have been with a character that wasn't all that likeable, which makes following him to prove his innocence not all that engaging. However, given the fact that the Oscar winner is the star of the show here, how does his performance stand up to the first? I'd say for the most part it does feel like he plays the character the same as opposed to phoning it in, he still has his odd quirks and offbeat humor and it works, it keeps the film moving along and it is enjoyable watching this character do more. The writer of the original show shares a writing credit for this one and doesn't just come in and write dialogue that doesn't fit the character, it feels natural.

However I don't think it serves the storytelling very well, instead of a coach its a plane (we weren't inspired by Con Air at all) and the main protagonist was set up by someone, wow. Over time it does distinguish itself but it doesn't make up for the fact that much of it is pretty much the same, even a scene with a map was the same. It looked like TLJ's character was ready to say something like 'not this again', but that didn't happen. Given the films humor it would have been fitting to see something like that, but it didn't happen. Still, like the first one, it was interesting to see how everything was going to play out.

Its biggest crime is that it went on far too long. It tried hard to copy the length of the first one and be its own epic story by itself but much of it was padding and felt like it could have been cut, an 1hr 40 would have been perfect. Robert Downey Jr. was completely wasted too, he was hardly in this at all.

The film still offers good set pieces, has its own quirky humor and is fun to watch for what it was but clearly lacks in other areas. Besides featuring another good performance by TLJ, U.S. Marshals doesn't quite stand up, it isn't a bad film by any means but feels eerily similar to the first.