There are lots of movies in this world. Lots. Today’s fbf is one of those movies that got lost in the holiday shuffle of 1995. That movie was Money Train.
The story is about two transit cops/foster brothers, Hook and Charlie, played by Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson, who get teamed up with Officer Grace Santiago (Jennifer Lopez). With the addition of a beautiful woman to their team, the two brothers bicker and get jealous over who can get with Santiago. As the three work together they also have to deal with The Torch (Chris Cooper), a pyromaniac who likes to torch people and rob subway booths and also Patterson (Robert Blake) the guy that runs the money train that goes through the subway our three heroes police.
Woody Harrleson as Charlie.
Most buddy cop movies are kinda the same, they team up, they fight, they arm up and take out the bad guy. The same is kinda done in this movie but what sets this one apart is Charlie is dead set on robbing Patterson’s money train. He even goes over how he would rob it with Hook. With them being cops, Hook doesn’t put much stock into it. But with Charlie having gambling problems and always feeling like he always the one left out or coming in second behind big brother Hook, Charlie is not taking no for an answer this time.
Directed by Joseph Ruben and with a script written by Doug Richardson (Die Hard 2, Bad Boys) the jokes are there, but this movie is more like Bad Boys (without the slow motion hero shots). The action is pretty solid and helped by a score from Mark Mancina. Wesley and Woody play off each other really well, having done White Men Can’t Jump together and J. Lo is actually not bad before her Jenny from the Block days. Actor Robert Blake really sells it well as asshole Patterson. You take one look at the guy and you can tell he would kill anyone to get his way. (Oh wait…)
Money Train is definitely no Speed but it’s an enjoyable movie that feels like it didn’t deserve the hate it got when first released. Give it another look, besides the mid 90’s soundtrack, the movie has aged pretty well.
Till then, enjoy movies, madafakkas. Catch Mando on Twitter at @manbat33 when he’s not co-hosting the @TalentedSlacker podcast!