Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Money Train Blu-ray Movie Review

White man can’t jump, but can he steal a train?

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater May 26, 2011

With precious few exceptions, all buddy films have the same backbone—you have two guys, total yin-yang opposites, who bond while resolving some dramatic conflict and end up best friends, despite their differences. It’s the male-male heterosexual equivalent of a romantic comedy, and lately it’s been given a new name: the bromance. Since the great comedy duos of the 1930s, this has been one of Hollywood’s most enduring genres, and for good reason. American males generally don’t like to express their feelings towards one another, so the buddy movie lets dudes vicariously experience that acknowledgement of friendship and all its associated emotions. In the 1980s and ‘90s, the rise of black/white buddy teams also reflected society’s newly relaxed racial attitudes. This was what you might call the heyday of buddy movies, giving us action comedy classics like 48 HRS. and the Lethal Weapon series. 1995’s Money Train isn’t quite up to par with the best the era had to offer—it’s a cliché-riddled mess that doesn’t get going until its final act—but it has one thing going for it: the comic pairing of Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes.

Get on the Money Train, and ride it...

Of course, Woody and Wesley had buddied up previously for 1992’s White Man Can’t Jump, where they had much better, funnier material with which to work. Money Train wants to be a large-scale action/comedy/thriller in the Lethal Weapon mold, but the film is slow to work up momentum, and doesn’t gain any real speed until the very end. Harrelson and Snipes play Charlie and John, a pair of New York City transit cops assigned to catch pickpockets at a subway stop near Wall Street. Their routine goes something like this: one of them pretends to be drunk—bait for petty thieves—and the other keeps watch from a distance, ready to swoop in and make the arrest. Besides being partners, they’re also brothers. No, really. In a set-up that’s played for numerous “hey, you guys look nothing alike” jokes—with diminishing returns—Charlie and John are foster siblings, and their personalities are as different as their skin colors. John is the stand-up guy, the responsible one, while Charlie is more reckless, with a crippling gambling addiction. The impetus for the plot kicks in when Charlie finds himself $15,000 in debt to a dangerous mobster who wants his money, like, yesterday. Let’s see…where might Charlie find that kind of cash? Oh yeah. At the beginning of the film, the brothers get in trouble with their hardass boss (a characteristically intense Robert Blake) for accidentally delaying the “money train”—the armored engine that surreptitiously travels between subway stops, collecting fare money. Do you see where this is going?

Yes, Charlie plans to rob the money train, and John—the more moral of the two—is going to try to stop him, but it takes forever for this to happen. The middle of the film is a tiring, drawn-out slog through pointless subplots and run-of-the-mill sibling rivalry. As if trying to duplicate the formula that made White Man Can’t Jump so successful, a gorgeous Hispanic love interest is introduced, giving the brothers even more cause to squabble. Jennifer Lopez plays Grace Santiago, a stereotypically feisty Latina who gets assigned to work with Charlie and John but ends up pitting them against one another for her affections. The humdrum love triangle takes over the story so much that you might forget you’re watching an action film. Although the former “Fly Girl” is good here—especially in a scene where she spars in a boxing ring with Snipes—it turns out that her role is mostly padding; once the not-so-great train caper actually begins, Lopez’ character recedes into the background and plays no significant part in the film’s conclusion. Also serving as filler—and to keep us awake—is a subplot involving character actor Chris Cooper as “The Torch,” a pyromaniac psychopath who robs subway token booths by squirting lighter fluid onto the attendants and threatening to set them ablaze. Even after the inconsequential Torch gets taken down—some forty minutes before the end of the film—Money Train takes its sweet time getting to the climactic heist sequence. A more apt title would’ve been I Swear, Honest, They Get to the Money Train Eventually.

This blow-out, no-brakes finale is thrillingly staged—Will they make it through the steel barricade? Will they crash into the oncoming passenger train?—but it’s too little too late. If the whole film had sustained this level of ramped up intensity, Money Train might’ve become a 1990s action classic instead of merely a minor footnote in the history of buddy movies. (In fact, Money Train is most famous—or infamous—for the subsequent rash of lighter fluid attacks in New York that were supposedly inspired by “The Torch,” leading Bob Dole to propose a boycott on the film.) At the same time, Money Train is one of those films that tend to stick in people’s minds solely because of the chemistry between its characters. While it’s no saving grace, the irreverent, back-and-forth, one-liner-dropping banter that Harrelson and Snipes dole out is memorable, and the two actors share a comfortable, yeah, we’ve worked with each other before screen presence. They’re fun to watch, but this alone doesn’t make for a good film. Money Train is the opposite of “going nowhere fast.” It does arrive at a destination eventually, but it goes there slowly, slowly.

Money Train Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Image Entertainment rolls Money Train onto Blu-ray with a strong 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer, framed in the film's intended 2.35:1 aspect ratio. As I mentioned in my review of Image's recent release of Jagged Edge, you never know what you're going to get when it comes to catalog titles from the '80s and '90s; so much depends on the way the film was shot and the condition of the prints. To the distributor's credit, Image has done a fine job of finding source materials that are in near-perfect condition and transferring them faithfully in high definition. Aside from some scattered white flecks, Money Train looks pristine, and there's no evidence of excess noise reduction, edge enhancement, or any other noticeable— and thereby distracting—tweaks to the original image. It looks like the film was run through the telecine machine, given some minor color corrections, and that's about it. This is, I think, the best approach for these kinds of movies. Clarity is not exceptionally sharp—it probably never was—but the increase in resolution is immediately apparent in areas where you normally look for it, like facial textures and clothing details. Color is natural, and if never particularly vivid, at least dense and consistent, with a foundation of adequately deep blacks and good contrast. Lastly, besides some minor noise, there are no compression-related issues worth noting. Money Train probably looks as good here as it ever will.

Money Train Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The image is accompanied by a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track that's clear, dynamically strong, and likely true to source, even if the mix is otherwise unremarkable. Like the film itself, this track is at its best during the few action sequences, where you'll hear trains barreling through the rear speakers, metal rending sounds, gunshots popping through the airspace around your head, and plenty of swooshes and screeches. None of it is particularly immersive or convincing—the pans are a bit stocky—but it's about what you'd expect from a mid-1990s film of this sort. The rest of the film is much quieter and dialogue-driven, with occasional ambience, like bar chatter and New York street sounds. The music by Mark Mancina shows its age, but it sounds fine, with a decent low-end presence and clarity throughout the range. Dialogue is also clean and easily discernable throughout. The disc comes with optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles.

Money Train Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The sole supplement on the disc is a theatrical trailer (1080p, 2:48).

Money Train Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Money Train is one of the lesser 1990s action comedies—it's more boring than you probably remember—but, like most mediocre buddy films, it gets by on the charisma and chemistry of its two stars. Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson make a great odd couple, and if that's enough for you, it might be worth taking another ride on Money Train. Lack of special features aside, Image Entertainment's Blu-ray rerelease is strong, with a surprisingly impressive high definition transfer and a solid lossless audio track.