U.S. Marshals

“U.S. Marshals” was on TV today. I am sure everyone has seen a movie where a guy was working for the government doing some dirty work (aka “special operations” and “black ops”) and then he got set up with a couple of homicides hanging on his neck, so he has to escape from prison to avoid capital punishment and clear his name. And there is usually this smart detective that is chasing him and finds out all about this guy’s story and wants to help him, but he still has to catch him. And so they run until one of them doesn’t kill the bad guy who masterminded the setup. Sounds familiar?

Well, “U.S. Marshals” is exactly this kind of movie. But it is properly done. I mean when the story is not a surprise anymore (about 10 minutes from the starting titles, and it took me so long because I was 8 minutes late) the audience is occupied with paying attention to everything else except the plot. So, what’s there? The first thing that gets discovered is that the film is full of celebrities: Tommy Lee Jones, Wesley Snipes, Robert Downey Jr., Joe Pantoliano and more. Further on, after all celebrities are recognized and remembered, special effects come to mind. And they are good too. I mean crashing the regular-sized aircraft is not the cheapest way producers can go help the guy escape from prison. :) Music was great (reminded me of the Rambo’s first blood somehow). Pace was good. Dialogs are natural (film-kind natural) and entertaining. Good acting.

Films like this don’t usually score high on my list, but I am pretty confident that 7/10 is a fair grade.