Thoughts on U.S. Marshals

 

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*Sam Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) is once again in charge of capturing a fugitive, this time Mark Sheridan (Wesley Snipes). To be fair, Sheriff Poe (Tracy Letts) did quickly realize that he was in over his head.*
"Said perimeter to extend downstream from Brookport to Mound City. Every bridge across the Ohio River from Golconda to Metropolis to Cairo needs to be closed down. Extending south from the Alexander and Pulaski county lines, have every house, hotel, hospital, back road and backwater searched for Mr. Mark J. Roberts. Get his picture on the local television newscasts and keep it there. Please consider him dangerous and please act accordingly."

U.S. Marshals, directed by Stuart Baird and written by Roy Huggins and John Pogue, has its faults. It's too long, with a mystery that's not as engaging as the one in The Fugitive. It still involves murder, with the added assumed excitement of top secret information sales to the Chinese government. Mark's reasons for being a fugitive, as well as his innocence, are only confirmed once the moviemakers have gotten all they can out of teasing the audience. I normally eat that stuff up, but it feels forced in Marshals, with intrigue for the sake of intrigue rather than occurring organically. You could argue that Marshals has the same amped-up approach when it comes to presenting its leading man, but I didn't mind that as much. After all, a star is a star.

Tommy Lee Jones still enjoys steady employement and thanks to his Oscar for The Fugitive, he'll probably always have the right to prominent billing. To his credit, Jones' blockbuster years included his playing roles other than Gerard or variants. Considering how much mileage Jones got out of Gerard, you can't begrudge him for wanting another turn with the role, another opportunity to play the hero and trade barbs with Cosmo (Joe Pantoliano) and the new character of Royce (Robert Downey Jr.). Downey's comeback thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe casts an interesting shadow on Marshals. When Gerard encountered his gravely wounded team member and son figure, Newman (Tom Wood) -- SPOILER ALERT who had been shot by Royce, the actual bad guy END SPOILERS -- I thought, "Mr. Stark, I don't feel so good." Royce spends much of Marshals appearing to be Gerard's foil, someone who'll eventually get taken down a peg.

"If it's any consolation, I wouldn't ..."

"It's no consolation."

"Take off your sunglasses."

"Why?"

"So I can see your face. ... How'd you pull this duty?"

"Your fugitive murdered two of my friends. I volunteered."

"Ever make a fugitive arrest before?"

"No. Planning to shortly."

"You have a weapon?"

"A big one. You?"

"You sure you want to get cute with me? ... Got a backup weapon?"

"Never had the need."

"Get one. Keep that in your suit unless I tell you to take it out. Get a Glock. Lose that nickel-plated sissy pistol. ... Let's move. I'm not having fun. You know I get cranky when I don't have fun."

Of Marshals' three leads, Snipes is the most wasted. Mark is the movie's secondmost conventional hero. He even has a genuinely-loving girlfriend, Marie (Irène Jacob), whose purpose seems to be so the audience can say, "He even has a genuinely-loving girlfriend, so he must not be entirely awful." Mark's noble actions also include going out of his way to not kill innocent people, whether a trucker and his wife or a senior citizen on oxygen. You have to admit, Mark showed more consideration than the one prisoner (James Sie) who ended up creating mayhem including the Con Air plane gaining a new exit, disasembling and ultimately coming to an upside down stop in the Ohio River, that one officer having a heart attack, a couple prisoners in the back drowning because they weren't rescued in time, a no doubt massive blackout and, of course, his own death.

Marshals isn't especially awful. In fact, if it didn't have to live up to The Fugitive, it would almost be worth a recommendation. But the sad fact is that the whole was less than the sum of its parts. But what parts they were. I'm sorry to just now be mentioning Kate Nelligan (and not Faye Dunaway) as Gerard's supervisor and sorta love interest or this unintentionally hilarous scene between Cosmo and Gerard. John Anderson, Los Angeles Times, was struck by Joey Pantoliano's ongoing transition into becoming Garry Marshall.

"What the hell's the matter with you? Look, Sam, you can't do this. I know how you feel. I feel the same way. I loved that kid too, but this is wrong. ... I'm telling you this as a friend."

"I'm not your friend."

"Fine. Forget it. You want to kill Sheridan, go ahead, you do it. But you remember this: you forget every goddamn thing you ever taught me about this job. The rules, the regulations, the code. You do this, Sam, and it's all about you. It's not about Newman anymore. It's about you. The great Sam Gerard."

"Yes, I am."

"And you always have to win."

"Yes, I do."

Not Recommended.

Thoughts:
-- "Okay, Michael. Regular or extra-crispy?"

-- Box Office: Grossing nearly $57.2 million on a $45 million budget, this opened at No. 2 (on March 6, 1998; I'm giving commentary now because I wasn't sure I'd be able to fit it in). and came in at No. 36 for 1998. Over the weekend of March 6-8, 1998, the gap in grosses for Marshals and No. 1 Titanic was less than $1 million.

-- Critic's Corner, the movie: "Outdoes The Fugitive only in running time," Emmanuel Levy wrote for Variety. John Anderson: "Every subtle aspect of the original has been taken to its seemingly inevitable extreme ... the most irritiating thing about U.S. Marshals is the sense that it's a movie-by-committee, that every line and every aerial shot is calculated to seduce, though a sense of either deja vu or how much money is being lavished on screen." Gene Siskel: "A chase film that offers a few sensations but no real excitement or suspense."

-- Critic's Corner, the leads: "Everything's right about (Jones') performance, except that it's in a rambling movie," Roger Ebert declared. "Jones, one of the most enjoyable actors on the screen, plays himself to the hilt," Desson Howe wrote in The Washington Post. Snipes' obligation to the movie was merely scowling a lot and letting the stuntman do his thing, wrote Desson's colleague, Stephen Hunter. Over at The New York Times, Stephen Holden called Snipes "an actor who is as empty of expression as (Harrison Ford) was volatile." Anderson, meanwhile, figured that Downey had enough problems aside from being in this film. Owen Gleiberman was more approving, saying Robert "makes a nifty fit inside this formula thriller context."

-- Awards Watch: Snipes and Jones received a Blockbuster Entertainment Award nomination for Favorite Action/Adventure Duo, losing to Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker for Rush Hour.

-- Hey, It's ...!: Besides Tracy, we have Lester Holt and Donald Gibb.

-- Great Moments in Shilling!: An ad for Rent tops the cab that Mark takes to the Queens Hill Cemetery. Warner Bros. was one of several studios that nearly filmed and released the musical's movie adaptation. Most of Marshals' city scenes were actually shot in Chicago, where the "Angel" tour played after the movie's production.

-- "I'm going back to bed."

-- Next: Hush. On deck: Dark City.