Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson charmed audiences in 1992s White Men Can’t Jump, an all-time hilarious sports-comedy. Three years later Sony would try to recapture that magic by reuniting them for a big action-comedy. It’d be given a beefy budget but would ultimately fail to reach the financial success of Snipes and Harrelson on the basketball court. However, despite the poor returns, I contend that this one’s actually a kick-ass action movie that delivers plenty of laughs.
I can see its flaws. But I think Snipes and Harrelson together can always entertain me and I have a soft spot for this movie. Money Train dropped over Thanksgiving weekend, and I remember having a date with a girl I was so into, and we were supposed to go have some food and watch this movie. And damn, I can remember the build-up for the day after Thanksgiving. I was super excited for this movie since I was a huge Snipes fan, but I really dug this girl and knew this date would be my chance to charm her and let her know what Anthony was all about. Turns out she was just on a break from her guy, more than likely using me to make him jealous and when I advertised my charm she wasn’t buying and got back together with the dude shortly after.
On the bright side Money Train was a blast and to this day it’s on my New Year’s movie watch-list. I’ll link my retrospective review of White Men Can’t Jump here for you all to check out later but that would not be the first film Snipes and Harrelson would be in together. Earlier in their careers they both had roles in the Goldie Hawn football comedy Wildcats from 1986. But White Men Can’t Jump would be a breakout for them as a duo pulling in a ton of cash and garnering praise from both critics and audiences.
So, it was assumed they could do it again with Money Train. A bigger action movie set in New York with larger set-pieces that could rely on the chemistry of Snipes and Harrelson. Essentially turning them into a tweaked version of Riggs and Murtaugh. Now originally this movie was being developed by director Tony Scott with Doug Richardson known for penning films such as Bad Boys and Die Hard 2 writing the screenplay.
However, after it took too long to get the project closer to production things would stall. Scott and Richardson had moved on and in came director Joseph Ruben known for films like Sleeping with the Enemy and The Good Son. He would bring in David Loughery, who also wrote Passenger 57 to revise the script. But when you watch this one you can clearly see Snipes and Harrelson did a ton of improv during their comedic scenes.
Money Train would be given a budget of $68M, with Snipes and Harrelson each getting $5.5M and filming would take place from Jan to May of 1995 throughout parts of New York and on sound stages in Los Angeles. This movie, at the time, had one of the longest sets ever built at over 3000 feet and four railway tracks wide for the filming of the action sequences involving the money train. Originally it was intended to film on-location in the NYC subway, but it proved to be a logistical nightmare.
The massive LA set was extremely detailed and would include stop stations complete with the platforms on the sides of the tracks and toll booths to make it as realistic as possible. Twelve subway cars were modified so they wouldn’t need to be electrified and could instead run on propane and they were shipped across the country out to LA. The crew would film in the real NYC subway tunnels then intercut the footage from the sound stage to give the film a seamless look while watching.
The casting seemed relatively smooth. Wesley and Woody were always intended for the leads and Jennifer Lopez would be cast as the female lead Grace Santiago. Both Cameron Diaz and Catherine Zeta-Jones would audition for the part, but it would ultimately go to Lopez who was still on the rise at the time as an actress having done mostly TV work up until this point with Money Train being her first big mainstream part. Robert Blake plays the sleazy and racist Captain Patterson who is in love with his revenue train. This is a bit of an awkward part of this movie. Blake in real-life was accused of murdering his wife, and he was eventually acquitted, but regardless it’s a little strange. He’s fine in the role but he certainly over does it. His character is one you need to hate, and Blake’s performance makes it super easy, so for the needs of the film I guess he delivers.
Closing out the focal cast is Chris Cooper as “The Torch”, the film’s secondary villain. And it was his character that actually brought this movie the most attention. Just highly negative attention. As I said, Cooper’s character is called “The Torch” and he would rob ticket booths by using a rubber tube tucked up his sleeve to squirt gasoline or something flammable into the booth. He’d then strike up a match and demand the money or else he would light it up. This is the primary villain in the film for a period of time that Wesley and Woody’s John and Charlie are aware of while working the subways as decoy cops. Sadly though, because humans will always be human. It was reported that a handful of similar crimes took place in New York during this film’s release. Two days after the film dropped two men poured gas over a ticket booth in Brooklyn and lit it up.
Police never specifically related the crimes, but it was an easy (common sense) connection. So, a boycott was called on the film from NYC subway workers, something that was supported by then presidential candidate Bob Dole. Sony stood by the film, but promotions were dialed back and all posters for the film were removed from subways across the city. And I certainly think these events all had an impact on the film’s financial returns.
As mentioned, it had a hefty $68M budget and it would land in theaters on Thanksgiving weekend of ‘95 to a tune of $10.6M solidifying itself in the #4 position. Money Train would pull in another $6M its second weekend and would earn a total of $35.3M in the U.S. with another $41.9M internationally to bring the global number for Money Train to a respectable $77.2M. So, it was a profitable film. Just a very small one and much less than the $90.7M White Men Can’t Jump grossed at the box office. Not great, but certainly not the “bomb” it was labeled as by the USA Today when released.
To no surprise the reviews were lackluster, but I still think this is a solid film from the mid-90s. Wesley and Woody may not be as magical together as they were in White Men Can’t Jump. But they’re still very good and more than able to fill this movie with crowd-pleasing charm and energy. Money Train has its noticeable flaws, yet it also delivers more than enough to be a capable action thriller with a lighthearted atmosphere.
Money Train in my opinion does have a solid plot. Wesley and Woody play foster brothers who work as transit cops in New York. Lopez’s Grace Santiago has been newly assigned to the team. Wesley’s John is a smooth righteous man who has his life together. Woody’s Charlie is a drinker with a massive gambling problem. They patrol the subways all the while there’s a guy torching ticket booths. And eventually Charlie’s gambling problems escalate to the point where he decides to steal the money train controlled by the ruthless Captain Patterson.
Overall, I think Money Train keeps a quick pace as it works through its story layers. It bounces evenly between action sequences, comedic set-pieces for Woody and Wesley, the development of the love dynamic between Lopez and Snipes, and the continued descent of Woody’s bad luck which ultimately results in his attempt to hijack the money train. Nothing special but the atmosphere is fueled by an upbeat score, NY as the setting is great, and the consistent blend of action and humor makes the movie effective.
The action is well staged, Snipes gets his couple of fight scenes, one later in the film against a club owner that’s still an awesome watch. The rest of the action is mostly chase-sequences on foot through the city and in the subway, with a buffet of harrowing intensity as the film closes and the money train races out of control through the tunnels with Woody and Wesley on-board in very Speed-esque fashion.
So, Money Train is a capable action flick and as I mentioned it’s plenty humorous. But the problem is it’s rarely, if ever…hilarious. Many of the blatant attempts at humor feel a bit forced and land a bit flat. This results in the shift of tone from action movie to comedy being way too large. In addition to Robert Black who as I said is able to create a dislikable character, but he puts way too much sauce on his performance and he’s cartoonish to the point he feels like a (bad) comic book villain.
With all that said I do enjoy Wesley and Woody in these roles. They aren’t as naturally humorous as they were in White Men Can’t Jump but the writing isn’t as strong either. Money Train in the end is a good film but with its budget it needed to be a great one and it’s pasting together of ideas didn’t result in the adrenaline pumping action flick or buddy-cop comedy it should have.
Grade: B-
CAST: Wesley Snipes, Woody Harrelson, Jennifer Lopez, Chris Cooper, Robert Blake, Skip Sudduth, Joe Grifasi, Enrico Colantoni DIRECTOR: Joseph Ruben WRITER(S): Doug Richardson, David Loughery DISTRIBUTOR: Columbia Pictures RUNNING TIME: 110 minutes RATING: R (For strong language, violence, sexual content, partial nudity) YEAR: 1995 LANGUAGE: English GENRE: Action/Comedy/Crime
Anthony J. Digioia II © 2024
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