MONEY TRAIN(1996)
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It's hard to tell you what this movie is about, because it seems to be about many things and nothing at the same time. Woody and Wesley are pretty gung-ho cop-types, who like to chase petty criminals, jump turnstiles and leap across subway tracks in zippy, camera pans that made me wish I wasn't sitting in the first three rows of the cinema. One day, one of their chases holds up the "money train's"--the train bearing the day's subway takings--arrival, and this incurs the wrath of the subway owner, who is played by Robert Blake.
Blake, who really does an impressive maniacal tyrant ("it's my train, my people, my money"), is great as the slightly potty dictator type who acts as though he were running a plantation instead of a modern day subway system, and doesn't seem to mind that his character has nothing to do with the story. Neither does Chris Cooper, who plays a toothy, psychopathic bum-type who goes around setting subway booths on fire that the subway authorities are trying to catch. And neither, in fact, does Jennifer Lopez, who is the pretty new subway cop, Grace Santiago, who joins the brothers' beat to help them catch the subway arsenist.
Wesley and Woody both fall in love with Jennifer Lopez, who has perfect bone structure and is what my good friend Gwen would call A Real Woman because despite being a rising Hollywood star, she's beautiful, funny and doesn't look like she weighs twelve pounds *with* her heels on. But MONEY TRAIN doesn't seem to be about the rivalry between the brothers over Jennifer, nor about the strange, vendetta between the brothers and Blake, the unresolved tension between siblings with an otherwise enviable relationship, or even about the will-they-or-won't-they robbery of the money train that Woody plans in order to pay off his gambling debts.
In between Woody being dangled over the verandah of a high story building by gangsters demanding the money he owes them, Jennifer and Wesley taking time off to put on boxing gloves and confess their attraction towards each other, and the high speed (and violence) tackling of the subway arsenist, there's too much going on in this movie for it to focus on finishing one idea. Despite all of this, MONEY TRAIN is still a great ride, and the chemistry between Woody and Wesley contributes a lot to it. Of course, wrecking subway stations, exploding trains and Wesley and Jennifer in steamy love scenes probably have something to do with it too.
As in WHITE MEN CAN'T JUMP, there is also a subtle racial point that
works far better than with John Travolta in Nakano's WHITE MAN'S BURDEN
because it is the one cliche that isn't brought up in the script. MONEY TRAIN
is rated R(A), probably because there were a couple of
scenes in there which allegedly inspired some real life accidents. It runs a
short 105 minutes and has a lot of action and hardly any nudity in it.
THE FLYING INKPOT's rating system:
* Wait for the video.
** A little creaky, but still better than staying at home with Gotcha!
*** Pretty good, bring a friend.
**** Amazing, potent stuff.
***** Perfection. See it twice.
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