The Wrong Vehicle
John (Wesley Snipes) always looked out for his foster brother, Charlie (Woody Harrelson), whilst growing up and that hasn't changed as adults either as they work together as transit cops. But whilst John has got his life pretty sorted Charlie manages to get himself into bother with ease, especially when it comes to running up a gambling debt with a nasty piece of work. But things come to a head between John and Charlie when firstly John ends up with Grace Santiago (Jennifer Lopez) who Charlie fancies and secondly their superior, Donald Patterson (Robert Blake), wanting to fire them both because of something Charlie did. It leads to Charlie making a rash decision, to rob the money train so that he can have the nice life he always wanted.
I am trying to make sense as to what "Money Train" is and by that I also mean how it came to be. So to start with it was clear that after the success of Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson in "White Men Can't Jump" that those behind the scenes wanted to pair them up again as they certainly had chemistry when it came to delivering banter. And so someone must have mentioned this script which saw foster brothers end up involved in a train robbery. That all makes sense and even adding a touch of the "Lethal Weapon" with the duo dealing with a superior who they wind up also fitted nicely in to the mix.
But here is the curious thing because the whole train robbery part of the storyline takes up maybe the last 20 minutes of the movie and for the first 90 minutes we get the brother's antics. As such we see them picking up petty thieves, winding each other up, dealing with conflicting feelings when it comes to Grace whilst also dealing with a guy who has been setting fire to ticket booths. But it all seems like filler, stretched out all over the place, trying to establish the brother's differences and how John has had enough of sorting out Charlie's messes but never feeling like there is any real inkling as to where the movie is going to end up. In fact I reckon in the opening 90 minutes there may be just two scenes which hinted at where the storyline was going.
And truth be told it is a shame that "Money Train" feels drawn out and almost side tracked by ideas during the first 90 minutes as the chemistry between Snipes and Harrelson is what makes the movie. Plus there are a few scenes which are thrown in there to highlight Snipes' action ability as he kicks a few bad guys butts. In fact Robert Blake is also entertaining as a little Napoleon style superior who gives the movie a touch of bad guy which it needs.
What this all boils down to is that "Money Train" is still an entertaining movie and showcases the chemistry which Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes had. But truth be told it is the wrong vehicle for them with a stretched out 90 minutes which is sidetracked by unimportant subplots followed by 20 minutes of action.
