Money Train

Don't think, just watch. Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes once again are, after 'White Men Can't Jump', a pretty funny team. Don't care for the plot, just see these two actors having a lot of fun with their characters and the situations they find themselves in.

Here they play two brothers, sort of. They are both cops, operating in and around a metro station. A criminal nick-named Torch (Chris Cooper), you can imagine what his crime is, is the villain they are trying to catch. There are also problems with Donald Patterson (Robert Blake), the man who controls the tracks. He puts his "money train" above everything, so when Charlie (Harrelson) and John (Snipes) delay that train with their police work, he gets mad. Another thing about money: Charlie is a bad gambler and owns a man named Mr. Brown (Scott Sowers) a lot of it. Jennifer Lopez, she plays Officer Grace Santiago, is the love interest for one of the two leads, of course leading to friction between them.

The film is called 'Money Train' so you understand the main story has to do with that train. I liked that story. The other stories seem to be there for Harrelson or Snipes and the fun they can have with them. The Lopez-character is necessary to explain certain actions that follow, the Cooper-character provides the film with some extra action-sequences. I didn't mind those things. They make sure the film delivers what it promises us. Action and comedy. Every scene between Snipes and Harrelson makes you smile. As a team they come close to Owen Wilson with anybody (Ben Stiller, Jackie Chan). If you don't expect too much there is a very good chance you will enjoy 'Money Train'.

Money Train (1995)

** (out of 4)

Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson are foster brothers who also work as transit cops for NYC. Charlie (Harrelson) decides to rob the transit cash flow to get back at his chief (Robert Blake) sho obviously John (Snipes) must go along to protect him.

I still remember walking into MONEY TRAIN when it first opened. The entire theater had a buzz going because they were excited to see the WHITE MEN CAN'T JUMP co-stars together again and this time in an action film. As the film started there were a few scattered laughs but by the halfway point people were starting to get restless and by the time the movie was over most people left disappointed.

I think it's pretty easy tos ee why WHITE MEN CAN'T JUMP still packs a great punch today while MONEY TRAIN has pretty much been forgotten. It's certainly not far to ever compare movies so lets just take a look at MONEY TRAIN on its own. The film was meant to be an action buddy movie but sadly there aren't enough laughs for it to work as a comedy adn the action scenes are rather poorly directed.

The film really doesn't have too much going for it other than the performers who are all on board. Both Snipes and Harrelson are in fine form and once again they have a great chemistry. You can tell that they are working their behinds off in every scene but there's just nothing there for them to work with. Blake is great chewing up the scenes and Jennifer Lopez is nice eye candy but the four are pretty much left in a film without much of a screenplay.

Personally speaking, I don't quite know what to make of this picture. I saw it again on late night cable the other night and I was laughing hysterically throughout. Wesley and Woody play two brothers (!) who work as transit cops. Woody's a gambling junkie with a huge debt on his back while Wesley plays the straight man who's getting a little tired of constantly having to bail his brother out. Desperate, Woody plans to hijack the Money Train that rides along to each station, collecting the night's collections. Folks, believe me when I tell you that it actually gets more ridiculous. Add to the mix a pyromaniac token booth bandit, a pre-lobotomy Jennifer Lopez, Robert Blake in a performance so hammy that you can almost smell the bacon coming from your tv, action sequences that are unabashedly ridiculous and you have yourself... Money Train. My favorite moment comes when Robert Blake, after having been informed of the possibility of civilian casualties if the hijacked Money Train continues to speed ahead on the local line, responds with the now-classic line, "That's what we live with." I was laughing so hard that tears were squirting out of my eyes. This movie is utterly ridiculous yet strangely riveting. Wesley Snipes plays his usual cocky, confident self and it seems to me that he won't accept a role these days unless he gets to kick someone in the face. Woody Harrelson looks like he smoked one too many blunts in this one. I actually prefer his character here over Wesley's and that's not saying much. Jennifer Lopez looks damn good but I can't help but think how stupid she is in real life. I really don't know where else to go with this review other than to recommend watching it. You might like it but not because it's quality stuff but because it'll cheer you up, it's so bad. Actual rating ** out of ***** but on the laugh-o-meter I'll give it a full **** out of *****.

The late 80s, early 90s was THE decade of buddy-cop comedy/action movies, and this is just one of those in a long line of them which graced (well more or less) our movie-screens. Every one has their favourite, from the classic Lethal Weapon series, back in the days when Mel Gibson was still sane, to the much later Bad Boys, the film that truly launched Will Smith's film career. Money Train was written by the same writer who gave the latter of those buddy-cop movies, and it really shows. You find the same kind of street-slang jokes and buddy camaraderie in both movies, but whereas the two cops in Bad Boys were childhood friends, in Money Train they are actually brothers. Well foster-brothers, which explains the fact one is black, one is white, and cue all the imaginable jokes you can think of with this type of sibling affinity. And not only are they foster-brothers, but partners in some New-York cop department which protects the Underground tube system.

Unfortunately, the chemistry between Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson isn't even close to that between Smith and Lawrence. They each respectively turn-out decent performances, Snipes is as cool as ever and Harrelson does his usual quirky, slightly goofy routine, which is all very entertaining; however they just never quite jell together. Then you add to the equation Jennifer Lopez as the women interest, in what was her first major big-screen roll. This only has two positive effects, first and obviously she does add some female charm to this 99% male cast, and secondly she makes her present acting seem to be of the same caliber as Diane Keaton!

As with a number of other mediocre cop movies, one major shortcoming is the lack of a distinct malignant unyielding adversary; someone to truly challenge our heroes while stimulating the audiences' affection for them. Here, the characters' "nemesis" are an uninspired boss/head-of-department tyrant type who only cares about protecting his "money-train"(which transports the Whole of the Undergrounds' cash); and a grossly under-used Chriss Cooper. His pyromaniac thief character seems either to have been hugely cut from the original script, or simply appended at the last minute to add some kind of dramatic tension.

An entertaining movie with a very decent script, to be watched without any too high expectations. The beginning drags-on for a while but the pace does build-up to an acceptable level after a while. Money Train could have been a lot better if it had been handled by a more competent director.

Why everyone is so mad about this movie! It's not that bad! I'm sure, the actors and the director Joseph Ruben (He's one of my favorite ones) do a good job, especially Jennifer Lopez (She's so hot!). Well, of course that film had to borrow a lot from Andrei Konchalovsky's masterpiece Runaway Train, but anyway, that's a good action thriller.