Most critics greet The Fugitive as an intelligent, tightly driven chase thriller, with praise clustering around Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones, Andrew Davis’s direction and the sustained suspense. The leads’ cat-and-mouse exchanges give the action much of its force, while the screenplay’s wit and clarity earn approval alongside the large-scale set pieces. The consensus is that familiar thriller material benefits from assured filmmaking and two well-matched performances.
Reservations concern formula, plausibility and excess rather than the basic appeal of the pursuit. The New Yorker admires the leads but finds the film too long, clichéd in places and burdened by an overly loud score. Time Out is the clearest dissenter, finding the chase glossy and formulaic and Ford emotionally limited, though it praises Jones. The spread therefore runs from enthusiastic approval to qualified appreciation, with no outright rejection.