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.
