Waste of time

Boring

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

When Money Train was first released to poor reviews and low box office in winter of 1995 it caused quite a controversy as a pointless, tasteless, and tacked-on subplot in which a weirdo lights subway cashiers on fire came true in real life. The authorities denounced the film and demanded it be banned in some form. Columbia refused to bow to their demands and bad word of mouth spread. It finally came out here in the UK in May of 1996 (essentially summer, for a Xmas/New Year- themed movie) and was slapped with an utterly ridiculous and unjustifiable 18-rating.Wesley and Woody play brothers (don't ask) John and Charlie, apparently without last names, who are New York transit cops. Their sole duty, it would seem, is to play drunk and entrap would-be muggers on the subway platforms. Charlie is a loser and a gambler and is in debt to scary Mr. Brown (Scott Sowers, in his second train-themed action movie of that year) for $15k. John loans Charlie the money but he is soon pick- pocketed by an old woman on the train (oh, the irony). Meanwhile (kinda) Chris Cooper (looking like Bill Maher) plays Torch, a pyromaniac terrorizing the subways.Don't expect any of these threads to kick in right away. Money Train spends AGES AND AGES AND AGES building up to...not much. Jennifer Lopez shows up as Grace Santiago a character who does...nothing. I'm not kidding, Jennifer Lopez does nothing in this film and serves absolutely zero purpose other than to have Wesley extremely unerotically hump her in a ridiculous, unnecessary, and anatomically-incorrect sex scene.Then, after what seems like a freaking aeon, Woody finally decides to rob the money train, an apparently heavily guarded single car train filled with millions of dollars in daily subway revenue. He does this with great ease, without even breaking a sweat. None of the above plots connect. Nothing seems like part of a chronology or timeline. It's all just random, haphazard drivel.Jennifer Lopez does nothing in this film.Money Train really should have been a heist movie. It should have been 30 minutes of set-up and 70 minutes of action with a runaway train and ever-escalating chaos. Instead the money train is an afterthought with the majority of the movie circling emptiness and dwelling on nothing. Jennifer Lopez does nothing in this film.It cannot even be enjoyed on a no-brainer level as there is barely any action to speak of. The subplot of Torch goes nowhere and is forgotten about as soon as it abruptly ends. Money Train feels like an entire movie of subplots with nothing at its core. If Jennifer Lopez was eliminated from the movie it would have been tighter.Jennifer Lopez does nothing in this film.Where's the excitement? The only highlight in the movie is Robert Blake as the deliriously over-the-top transit boss Donald Patterson. He's the only person having fun in this drek. Mark Mancina, fresh off his breakout success with Speed, churns out a completely generic and forgettable score that never gets the chance to pick up literal speed since the movie goes nowhere. Director Joseph Ruben, the man who wrought no excitement out of misaligned bath towels in Sleeping with the Enemy or a sweary Macauley Culkin in The Good Son apparently rewrote much of Doug Richardson's script, I believe for the worse. There was a lot of potential here, but as I have said several times already this is a train that goes nowhere.Jennifer Lopez does nothing in this film.Is it worth watching? Sure, but there's very, very little to bring you back unless you're a train movie junkie.Jennifer Lopez does nothing in this film.

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.

I have seen every element of this movie so many times, I could follow it in my sleep. I'm not talking about this particular movie but the 3 dozen or so other action movies that follow its formula to the teeth. 'Money Train' is a gruesome exercise in the worn-out cop buddy movie franchise offering nothing new except the cast which adhere to the formula as if changing them would be a sacrilege.The movie stars Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson, paired up after their success in the delightful 'White Men Can't Jump' as stepbrothers who are paired as buddies on the NYPD. The movie begins with a chase through the subway tunnel just to reassure impatient action fans that they will get their fill of gunplay and blow'd ups. The crook they are chasing is killed by cops guarding the money train that collects the day's fares from the various stations.A movie like this has to have it's token characters and believe me their all here. There is the sexy female played by Jennifer Lopez (Rosey Perez was the lifeblood of WMCJ but was either unavailable or just wise enough to stay away). There is the chief played by Robert Blake who, if you were to remove all his four letter words, would have reduced him to merely playing an extra. There has to be the usual group of impatient debt collectors and in this case hang Harrelson out a window unless he plays what he owes from gambling.Then somewhere in this story figures a psychotic (Chris Cooper) who provides the movie with unusually gruesome scenes in which he pours gasoline into subway ticket booths and sets the ticket taker on fire. I really did not need that, nor did the movie But my biggest problem with 'Money Train' is the relentless shouting matches between Snipes and Harrelson, they go off on each other about a half a dozen times in this movie and you wonder if they ever have a moment when they are just talking. I get a lot of time to wonder about things during a movie like 'Money Train' because there isn't anything else to do beside count down to the next cliché.

If you are seeking an exciting, dramatic movie, with everything, including the kitchen sink thrown in, you've found it. This story revolves around a special transit vehicle called the " Money Train. " The armored subway car itself belong to the New York Transit authority and is overseen by Police Chief Donald Paterson (Robert Blake). Although there are many policemen assigned to the Train units, or subway, only two are causing Paterson to become annoyed with their behavior. Officer John and his partner Charlie (Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson) are two disgruntled police officers who have discovered their chief cares more about his train and its on-time schedule, than for the public safety. With their careers all but finished, the two cops plan to rob the train. Both have reasons, but is further complicated when the two half-brothers began squabbling over their beautiful new partner Officer Grace Santiago (Jennifer Lopez). While the two brothers bicker and complain, serious problems like, muggings, pick-pockets and a pyromaniac called 'The Torch" (Chris Cooper) is causing major concerns. The movie is dosed liberally with fists fights, speed chases and explosions of the third kind, enough to called this movie dramatically exciting. Woody Harrelson gives a special tour De force but is equally confronted by Robert Blake's movie presence. This film is guaranteed to produce excitement and an adrenaline rush as audiences are subjected to the glorious trills of a run-away-train. Excellent viewing. ****