The Fugitive is a fantastic movie, the pseudo-sequel, U.S. Marshals, is not. Gone is the compelling characterization and acting that made The Fugitive great. Tommy Lee Jones is still Sam Gerrard, the hard as nails, always-gets-his-man federal agent he was before, but with a few scenes that made a weak attempt to humanize the character. While these scenes were not disastrous, they took away from the invincible mystique of Gerrard and left me wondering, "did we really need that scene at all?". They seemed very out of place and almost tacked-on.
As for the fugitive in this movie, Wesley Snipes is a government super agent that is wrongfully accused of a double murder and taken into custody. He escapes and vows to find the man that set him up so he can be "righteous" again. A similar story but without much direction for most of the film. We don't have the mysterious one armed man to look for, in fact for most of the film we have no idea what Snipes' character is actually doing. It's hard to root for the man on the run when the audience doesn't know if he did it or not. Certainly the movie tries to portray Snipes as a sympathetic character, a loving girlfriend, he doesn't kill anyone while fleeing from the law, but it is very unconvincing as we are led from seemingly pointless chase scene to chase scene.
Near the end of the film the plot does finally come together, sort of, but when we find out who the real villain is there isn't enough time left to develop him at all and after it is all said and done, one line of dialogue is all we get to explain his actions. I couldn't help but wonder, where was the righteous monologue from traitor to hero rationalizing his actions? Alas all we get is an, "I did it", and a gunshot. A film fallen far from its inspiration into mediocrity.
As for the fugitive in this movie, Wesley Snipes is a government super agent that is wrongfully accused of a double murder and taken into custody. He escapes and vows to find the man that set him up so he can be "righteous" again. A similar story but without much direction for most of the film. We don't have the mysterious one armed man to look for, in fact for most of the film we have no idea what Snipes' character is actually doing. It's hard to root for the man on the run when the audience doesn't know if he did it or not. Certainly the movie tries to portray Snipes as a sympathetic character, a loving girlfriend, he doesn't kill anyone while fleeing from the law, but it is very unconvincing as we are led from seemingly pointless chase scene to chase scene.
Near the end of the film the plot does finally come together, sort of, but when we find out who the real villain is there isn't enough time left to develop him at all and after it is all said and done, one line of dialogue is all we get to explain his actions. I couldn't help but wonder, where was the righteous monologue from traitor to hero rationalizing his actions? Alas all we get is an, "I did it", and a gunshot. A film fallen far from its inspiration into mediocrity.