Money Train (1995)

This is the kind of movie that makes you regret watching it, but holds on to you with the false promise that something worthwhile is going to happen eventually.It was advertised as a heist movie. The heist takes place in the last 30 minutes. Prior to that, there is less than 5 minutes of discussion about the heist, and a lot of nothing about no less than four yawn-inducing subplots. The girl, the bad boss, the mob that wants to collect a debt, and the mugger they chase, and chase. With all the time wasted on those tangents there is very nearly nothing in the way of story development for what is supposed to be the main plot.Granted the main characters need a motive and the mob provides it, but it shouldn't take literally two-thirds of the movie to establish a motive.The insidious thing about it is that, when you have to wait so long for the plot to start, you have an incentive to sit through the long prelude only to be disappointed by the most ridiculous, and simply lame, heist in memory.Skip this garbage. It's the product of some Hollywood hacks with no brains at all who don't have the sense to know when to send a script back for a re-write.

John (Wesley Snipes) and Charlie (Woody Harrelson) are a couple of transit cops and foster brothers. The money train transports the money collected from the system. Chief Donald Patterson (Robert Blake) runs the transit system and he doesn't let anything interferes with the money train. Charlie is a gambler and John has had it with him. Grace Santiago (Jennifer Lopez) is new to their team. Torch (Chris Cooper) is an arsonist. After a fight with other transit cops on the money train, there is $25k missing and Patterson suspects Charlie. The guys are tired of Patterson and Charlie starts a plan to rob the train but John won't have it. John gives Charlie $15k to pay off his debt but an old lady pickpocket steals it. Meanwhile, John and Grace has become a new couple. Grace works undercover and Torch tries to attack her. A wild chase ensues and a drunken Charlie is fired by Patterson. The bad guys still want their money from Charlie and he decides to rob the train.The chemistry for the Snipes Harrelson duo is off. The old chemistry is still there sometimes. However their characters don't even like each other half the time. Granted, the other half of the time they love each other like brothers. Everybody is a little bit annoying and a little bit frustrating. Charlie is especially frustrating. Then Robert Blake has to push so hard over the top douche. When the caper happens, the action goes insane and all reason goes out the window. It turns from a slightly frustrating watch to a loud mess.

Action is an interesting film genre. You go in expecting little and are pleasantly surprised if you get more. Films like Face/Off, Die Hard, Speed, Under Siege, while formulaic, were all able to offer the viewer more than they expected going in and so have become beloved classics of the genre. The Money Train tries to be more than a lot of the action films that came out and simply disappeared in the early 90s, but falls a little short. While the film certainly isn't bad, it isn't considered a classic of the genre, and, while not a financial failure, relatively few people saw it and even fewer remember it.The film reunites the stars of White Men Can't Jump, Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes as a pair of law enforcement officers John (Snipes) and Charlie (Harrelson) who basically decide to steal from their boss (Robert Blake) who is a real piece of work. John has a hot girlfriend Grace (a pre Selena Jennifer Lopez) and Charlie has a gambling problem. Sound familiar? There are some funny moments and the dramatic scenes between Snipes and Harrelson are excellent. But aside from these, there really aren't any memorable moments. While the pairing of Snipes and Harrelson isn't tired, it doesn't have the same impact it had on their previous outing. Blake is menacing and odious but his character is not a believable or effective villain. Chris Cooper, who has a smaller role in this as Torch, would have been a better antagonist.Money Train is OK and a reasonably entertaining way to spend a couple of hours, but it is also a missed opportunity. Snipes, Lopez, Harrelson and Blake try hard, but the finished product is less than the sum of its parts, and that's possibly the most frustrating thing of all.

While this film is several years old now, it is still not too bad to watch when it shows up on network TV. At the time it came out, both Woody Harrison and Wesly Snipes were HUGE box office draws..so they put them both together in a film..expecting magic to happen. It wasn't a amazing memorable film though. Fun..yes...parts were kind of laughable. The idea of them being "brothers" of sorts was cool too. They aren't perfect people with perfect lives..the flaws were quite clear..but we like them anyway. Adding Robert Blake was great as well. His tightly wound character looked like he could explode at any moment. It makes us wonder about how warped other parts of his life might be. I did think having Jennifer Lopez on board as a female cop/love interest was a little too much. She was just coming onto the scene as a performer..and it shows here...although not much has improved about her acting skills over the years...she needs to stick with music in my opinion.Did we need to be reminded she was a woman AND of ethnic decent too? The part could have been played by anyone...or simply not been added at all. I guess she was more or less eye candy here. I think my favorite part was the ending...when they had rolled the train..and were confronted by Robert Blakes extremely enraged character in the subway. After all they had been through...they still could stay cool enough to handle in with one swift and direct punch...which he dearly deserved. They end up getting away with the crime..which was wrong..yet..right too. Did they deserve all the money? Maybe. The fact they screwed the system and got away with it? Awesome.