Money Train (1995)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
John	Wesley Snipes	½
Charlie	Woody Harrelson	½
Grace Santiago	Jennifer Lopez	½
Donald Patterson	Robert Blake
Torch	Chris Cooper

Review

During the mid-1990s, there emerged a set of action films in which the heroes were more talkative and cheeky than before, and the action set-pieces were bigger and faster-moving, but still not completely taken over by CGI effects. Among the films belonging to this tradition were John Woo's Broken Arrow and this fairly enjoyable flick directed by Joseph Ruben. The epicentre of Money Train, in addition to the fast-moving title-vehicle, is the unlikely brotherhood of Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson, which is given both heart, soul and wit by the two ephemeral stars' sympathetic performances. The film is also well directed, with Ruben giving his urban images a warmth that befits the story, which in turn, of course, ends up just as ridiculous as you'd expect/fear. It's not so much the flurried finale that mars the film as much as the idiotic antagonist, played with such animosity by Robert Blake that his personality well surpasses his actions or lines. He and his precious train is so over-the-top that they effectively eradicate the buddy-movie-feeling built up during the film's first half. If only the script had evolved more around the brilliant Chris Cooper rather than the ridiculous Robert Blake. Money Train is quite fun – up until a certain point, after which I too start thinking about sneaking off with Jennifer Lopez, and just leave the guys and their train to it.