Review of US Marshals

Introduction

“US Marshals” is a sequel to the mega-successful film “The Fugitive” and features the same team of Marshals, led by Tommy Lee Jones, in hot pursuit of an escaped criminal (Wesley Snipes). The film follows the same formula as the original, with plenty of chases and big stunts on the way to the finale.

Video

The video is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and is of a high standard throughout the film, with no evidence of grain or dirt.

Visually the film has plenty going for it – there’s plenty of aerial footage, and some fantastic action sequences – the opening plane crash and the jump from the top of a high building onto a train being of particular note.

Audio

The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is well presented and good use is made of all the available channels for effects. As with the video, the plane crash sequence is pretty impressive.

My only complaint about the sound is that the dialogue level is set too low, requiring adjustment to bring the speech up to a comfortable volume.

Features

Extras consist of “Behind-the-Scenes” and “Anatomy of a Plane Crash”.

“Behind-the-Scenes” is a series of text screens containing information on the film – these are really just the production notes that are usually provided in the case insert by other studios - however, Warner`s infamous cases don`t lend themselves to this. I am not a fan of screens of text on DVDs, so don’t rate this very highly.

“Anatomy of a Plane Crash” is a number of featurettes looking at various aspects of the spectacular plane crash at the start of the film. Whilst interesting, each featurette is very short (90 seconds or less) and they should have all been combined to make one featurette – or at the very least a “play all” feature should have been provided. As a result, this feature is more of a gimmick than anything else.

The disc is packaged in the standard Warner “snapper” case, which details the generous 40 chapter breaks.

Conclusion

Overall, “US Marshals” is a very entertaining movie, which contains all right ingredients for a good action film. The only criticism is that it is perhaps slightly long at 126 minutes, and shaving 15 minutes off the running-time would transform a very good film into a great one. The film suffers from the common action film problem of having one climax too many and overstaying its welcome slightly.

The performances are excellent as you would expect, with Tommy Lee Jones and Snipes both playing their parts very well. The supporting cast is also very good, with Jones’ team providing plenty of humour along the way.

Visually the film is good, with some excellent sequences and good stunts – all of which is well presented by the good picture and sound on the DVD. The extras features are interesting, but not as good as they promised to be.