'THE FUGITIVE'.....HAPPY 25TH TO THE GUY WHO DIDN'T KILL HIS WIFE AND THE GUY WHO DOESN'T CARE.....

The Fugitive (1993)   Fondly recalling not just the days when Harrison Ford ruled the movies as the Everyman Action Hero.......but our busy, hectic fun days in the homevideo biz......

             Video stores were still a hell of a lot fun to be around back then, both as a customer and a movie-buyer for the stores (a trade plied by BQ)........even though the rapidly growing soul-sucking virus of Blockbuster Video had begun its infection across America, driving independent video stores out of business.......(but that's another story, including the BQ's hellish time of actually working in the infernal belly of BB...)

              For now, we'll happily remember the bustling times when everyone jammed into the video store to grab a copy of a surefire crowd pleaser like "The Fugitive".......an irresistible action-suspense thriller that pitted Ford, framed and wrongfully convicted for the murder of his wife, against an implacable, force-of-nature U.S. Marshall...(Tommy Lee Jones, having loads of scene-stealing fun as he collects his supporting actor Oscar).

              The film, taken from a hugely popular TV series whose final episode gripped the nation, kicks off with that breathtaking, wham-bam bus-and-train crash.......which allows Ford to run loose and hunt down the real villain and the creep's elusive one-armed henchman.

              The rest of movie, in the capable hands of director Andrew Davis, becomes a dazzling cat-and-mouse game between the desperate Ford and the wily, dogged Jones, who begins to incorporate a search for the truth into his relentless trackdown.

              25 years hasn't dimmed "The Fugitive"s pure entertainment value in the slightest........unlike dust-in-the-wind video stores, it's still here for new generations to enjoy.......and who might find miles and miles above the usual CGI, machine-tooled Dwayne Johnson vehicles that pass for 'crowdpleasers' today. .....(as well as having some fun spotting Julianne Moore and Jane Lynch in small supporting roles)

             A 5 star (*****) FIND OF FINDS for Harrison and Tommy's very own Clash Of The Titans.........we're always thrilled that Blockbuster Video stays dead and buried....but this movie lives on forever.