Wolff rating: NOT BAD
Plot summary: Dogged, Javert-like Federal marshal hunts down another escapee.
Biased, pithy comments: I'm rating this movie too harshly, but I don't have a category for ``OK movie if you hadn't seen other movies just like it that were better.'' In this case, ``Marshals'' is trying to cash in on the success of the Ford/Jones smash hit ``The Fugitive,'' and ``Marshals'' can't quite find the chemistry. Although the beginning of the movie allows us just a little insight into the interesting character of Gerard, the plot quickly generates into an exercise of little more than exercise, with Jones, Snipes, and everyone else running up and down stairs, through rooms, along the tops of trains, in chapels, in hospitals, in graveyards, in swamps, and so forth. By the end, the movement started in the characters has stalled and we're left without anything to hold on to. The best action films really center around the hearts of characters (``The Fugitive'' for example, or even weird SF things like ``Aliens'' or ``Terminator'') and this film can't quite find anyone's heart. But, good stunts, great special effects, and an OK twist at the end (desipte the pretty sketchy conspiracy plot).
Other Notes: Nice Chicago locations. I like movies in Chicago now that I'm a native.
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Wesley Snipes, Robert Downey Jr., Kate Nelligan, Michael Paul Chan.
Directed by: Stuart Baird