Robert Downey Jr. & Tommy Lee Jones' Slick Crime Thriller Takes Over Tubi's Charts

If you're not yet a Tubi convert, you likely soon will be. Subscription streamers continue to raise their fees only to present you with ad-riddled media anyway, and that's if the media you're looking for even happens to be on these services. It's sort of ridiculous how many subscriptions I have, and yet it seems as though every time I search for a movie from years ago, I'm confronted with a choice between renting or buying. So, if we're always going to be told to shell out more money for the stuff we want to watch regardless of how many services we already pay for, the most logical response would be to subscribe to one or two streamers that you reliably use and accept that the dreaded "buy or rent" screen will be an inevitable part of your future. 

But paid streamers aren't the only option. Enter: Tubi. The free streaming platform, which was bought by the Fox Corporation in 2020, actually has the biggest content library of any streamer, including Netflix, and reportedly boasts 97 million monthly active users. What's more, Tubi actually has some seriously great horror movies and, in 2024, hosted "The Batman" and several other DC movies. That is to say that this free streamer is not the vortex of bargain bin "content" you'd expect, and is well worth your time if you're sick of paying perpetually rising subscription costs elsewhere.

Sadly, though, the platform's most-watched chart isn't much better than the paid services in terms of quality. Rotten features frequently find their way to the top of the rankings on Tubi, and this week, it's Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Downey Jr.'s turn with "U.S. Marshals." With that being said, this 1998 crime thriller isn't quite as bad as its Rotten Tomatoes score would have you believe.

While Tubi is home to some surprisingly great films and TV shows, in a catalogue this expansive there's also plenty of nonsense, much of which seems to rise to the surface more often than you might hope. For example, Jennifer Garner's crime thriller flop and "Atomic Blonde" rip-off "Peppermint" recently took over the Tubi charts and, soon after, Sylvester Stallone's lackluster sci-fi superhero outing "Samaritan" also proved to be a Tubi hit. Neither film could get anywhere near even a 50% Rotten Tomatoes score, though, and Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Downey Jr.'s crime thriller "U.S. Marshals" couldn't manage to get on the right side of the Tomatometer either. Still, it's somehow not as dismaying to see the movie on Tubi's most-watched chart.

According to streaming viewership tracker FlixPatrol, "U.S. Marshals" is currently number one on the free streamer. The movie hit Tubi on April 1, 2025, and had made its way onto the charts in the 10th position as of April 7. A day later, it rose to number three before taking the top spot on April 9. Not a bad little run for an almost 30-year-old thriller that, let's face it, is neither Jones nor Downey Jr.'s finest outing. Still, "U.S. Marshals" is also far from the pair's worst efforts and may even be good enough to warrant a watch if you haven't yet ventured over to Tubi.

"U.S Marshals" was actually a sequel to 1993's "The Fugitive," the rare action movie to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. That seminal '90s action thriller remains beloved today, but its follow-up didn't quite hit the heights as its predecessor. Instead of "The Fugitive" director Andrew Davis returning, the sequel was helmed by Stuart Baird, whose only other directorial credits are "Executive Decision" (1996) and "Star Trek: Nemesis" (2002). "U.S. Marshals" also didn't feature Harrison Ford, who played Dr. Richard Kimble in the first movie. Instead, it followed Tommy Lee Jones' United States Deputy Marshal Sam Gerard as he went hunting for another fugitive in the form of Wesley Snipes' Mark Sheridan. Gerard is aided in his mission by Robert Downey Jr.'s DSS Special Agent John Royce, with the pair relentlessly pursuing Snipes' escaped prisoner despite nagging doubts about his guilt.

Whereas "The Fugitive" was critically acclaimed and made $353 million at the global box office on a $44 million budget, the sequel sadly only made a fraction of that, coming in with a global total of just $57 million on a $60 million budget. Critics weren't as impressed with "U.S. Marshals" as they were with the first movie, either. The film currently has a 30% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with most reviewers decrying the lack of a decent plot to justify the prospect of bringing Jones' Marshal back for a second outing. Still, the action wasn't too bad, and it is compelling to go back and watch a young Downey Jr. play off the unrelenting gruffness of his co-star. As such, you could do a lot worse than streaming "U.S. Marshals" on Tubi — perhaps by streaming this Jason Statham/Jennifer Lopez heist movie, instead.