Daily Archives: March 3, 1998

U.s. Marshals

Not so much a sequel to The Fugitive as a lazy spin-off that imitates only what was boring and artificially frenetic about that earlier thriller; the little that kept it interestingTommy Lee Jones’s Oscar-winning inflections, better-than-average directionis nowhere in evidence. Once again Jones plays a marshal bent on capturing a wrongly accused fugitive from justice (Wesley Snipes this time around), though why we’re supposed to be interested in or diverted by this fascist bully terrorizing whole sections of Chicago and New York in order to track down his innocent prey escapes me entirely; the character is equally dull as hero and villain, and it’s not clear much of the time which he’s supposed to be. The usually interesting Robert Downey Jr. is miscast as another government agent, and Irene Jacob as Snipes’s lover isn’t around long enough to ameliorate the motion sickness. Written (very badly) by John Pogue and directed (if that’s the word) by Stuart Baird; with Joe Pantoliano, Daniel Roebuck, and Tom Wood (deputy marshals back from The Fugitive), LaTanya Richardson, and Kate Nelligan. (JR) Read more