Director Stuart Baird delivers a semi-sequel to 1993’s The Fugitive with this film that sees the return of Tommy Lee Jones as U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard, a role he won an Oscar for in the Harrison Ford thriller.

This time around, even though he’s accompanied by a score by Jerry Goldsmith, the film doesn’t have the same punch and panache as The Fugitive and works best when Gerard is pattering with his team of marshals which includes Renfro (Joe Pantoliano), Newman (Tom Wood), Cooper (LaTanya Richardson Jackson) and Biggs (Daniel Roebuck). There’s a real sense of chemistry and history when you put this group of actors together, and it feels like a real relationship.

Gerard is assigned escort duty on a prisoner transfer flight. There just so happens to be a prisoner on board, Sheridan (Wesley Snipes), who may not be what he appears, and when an attempt on his life at altitude causes the plane to crash, Sheridan is on the run with Gerard and his team tracking him.

When they realize he knows tradecraft, and there’s more to the story than they’ve been told, they find themselves saddled with an agent, Royce (Robert Downey Jr.), eager to insert himself into the group and stop Sheridan.

But is he working at cross-purposes to the team?

Layering on a story of murder and state secrets, all of that really serves as backdrop to the chase. We know Sheridan is innocent, we know Gerard will chase him anyway while also working on figuring out the truth, so the rest of the story needs to be amped up.

And honestly, some of it works, and some of it doesn’t. The model work around the plane crash is iffy at best, there are glaring sequences that last way too long that allow you to be ousted from the suspension of disbelief because of the lack of weight, and size of the models.

The majority of the action takes place in New York (and there’s some nice stunt work here), though they don’t use it quite as well as they could have, and I don’t know if that’s a reflection on the production or the director. I have enjoyed some of Baird’s directorial work, he’s a great editor, but his directing efforts aren’t always as strong as they could be.

Honestly, this could have launched a franchise for the Gerard character, if Jones was up for it, but the story just wasn’t as strong or as captivating as the first film. They needed to up the factors from the first film, and you don’t get some great moments from Gerard and his team, but overall, it doesn’t stand anywhere near The Fugitive.

Having said that, Jones and the actors who comprise his team are awesome.