Asalto al tren del dinero

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.

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.

Money Train is one of those films that is NOT A MUST SEE , but it is worth a check out if it is on the TV or if you got nothing better to do on your Friday night then its worth a rent . In my opinion I found it a lot more enjoyable then White Men Can't Jump , its sort of like a down graded high speed version of Oceans 11 . The chemistry between Snipes and Harrelson is spot on and it works well for a third time . There is not much of a plot to the film just an average screw your average ass-hole boss movie which I like at this point and time because it reminds me of the relationship I have with my boss not to mention the slight money problems I'm having . Jennifer Lopez just bobs up now and then but in this case her screen presence is welcoming . I don't want to be fussy and pick out several little pieces and analyse them , this film was a simple time killing pop-corn movie that should viewed when you don't feel like watching something heavy or you'd rather check this out rather than Santa's Slay .

MONEY TRAIN - 5.6 OUT 10 - THATS WHAT WE LIVE WITH .

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.

Reading the reviews below this seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it kind of film. Regardless of whether you 'get' the story and the rapport between Harrelson and Snipes, you can't overlook that this is a well made film.

I've only seen it twice, once when it first came out on video, and again in the past week. I didn't think it was that remarkable when it first came out, but when I watched it the second time around, I found it highly entertaining and well executed. Granted, it's not the best film ever but I don't think it's deserving of a lot of the bad reviews given here.

As a film it succeeds, and if you've never seen it before, it's worth checking out.