U.S. Marshals (1998)

Random action scenes

This film gathers action scenes such as a plane crash, some shootouts, a car chase, a boat chase, and swing on a rope onto the roof of a train. That would all be great except for the plot and the characters.

Tommy Lee Jones heads up a "merry band" of people who are "colourful characters" in that they ask things like "Where can I get something to eat?" or chew on hot dogs. Their interest in getting something to eat is what makes them both interesting and lovable. This group of latter-day Robin Hoods have to pursue a fugitive from justice. Plot twist: the fugitive is actually a top-secret super-duper operative able to undo his handcuffs with a bit of broken spectacles.

Into the fray comes "bad boy" Robert Downey Jr from a governmental organisation. He's also able to undo handcuffs with broken spectacles, proving he's a super-duper operative, but he wears a suit, and he doesn't continually ask "where can I get something to eat around here?" so wise viewers will have already realised that this person is up to no good!

Then we have some plot twists, more action, guy flies through the air, at some point a random middle-aged woman suddenly bursts into a room and starts hollering about something, Tommy "commandeering" a car and doing various other damage without suffering any consequences, and then at last we have our confrontation between the completely-unconvincing good guys and even-less convincing bad guys, bang bang and it's all over.

It seems to be a sequel to "The Fugitive" with Harrison Ford but I don't actually remember if any of these people except for Tommy LJ were in that.

It would probably have been a good idea to start with a story and then make the action scenes fit that, rather than try to fit a story to a bunch of action scenes.

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