To every armchair movie critic out there (myself included) who says:
"They need to stop remaking old television shows into movies...."
I give you: The Fugitive.
The exception that proves the rule.
Because for every 100 that suck, one comes along that makes you giddy and say, "Now THAT was a movie!"
And so it was with this one.
Andrew Davis, you remember him from Under Siege, decided to come back with a bigger budget and bring Tommy Lee Jones along to chew the scenery again. This time, he plays a U.S. Marshal who is in hot pursuit of an escaped fugitive, Dr. Richard Kimble. And if you can read that last sentence without hearing Tommy Lee Jones intone "escaped fugitive, Dr. Richard Kimble" then you are a better man than I am.
Technically, Marshal Gerard is the bad guy of the movie...
And yet...
It's hard to dislike the guy. I mean, seriously, he's just doing his job. As he says in the movie when Kimble professes his innocence... "I don't care."
But he will, don't worry. And that is why the audience has a hard time rooting against him, while naturally rooting for the man we all know is innocent.
This tour de force of a role also earned Tommy Lee Jones an Oscar, as he stole the movie right out from under the hands of Harrison Ford.
So yes, onto Harrison Ford. Andrew Davis had to give up something from Under Siege, so he traded in Seagal for Ford. Good trade. This is one of those roles where Ford excels best in:
He gets to act, while at the center of spectacular stunt pieces.
No offense to the guy, I love me some Harrison Ford... but the roles where he is a talking head... or just not involved in the action are often the snoozers in his career. Call it typecasting, I don't care, I call them like I see them.
Yeah, this was a great movie, and while the sequel wasn't nearly as good, it was an admirable effort to bank on the likability of Tommy Lee Jones. He just needed a Kimble that was directly in proportion to his screen presence.
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