John and Charlie Robinson are step brothers who work on the New York subway as transit cops. For the most part their job seems to consist of one of them acting like a drunk and waiting for low-lives to attempt to rob them then the team arresting them. During one such operation a petty thief flees through the tunnel to the nest station where the 'money train' is stopped while its crew collect the day's revenue… they shoot and kill the thief. John and Charlie are disgusted by their over-reaction but their boss, Donald Patterson, is unconcerned; he regards the money train as his and thinks any potential threat to it must be eliminated.Charlie, who has money problems, jokes that one day they should rob the train but John is unimpressed. As well as dealing with petty thieves they are also looking for a character known as 'The Torch' who has been attempting to set fire to ticket offices and the female employees inside them. The brothers' lives seem to be going in different directions; both fancy new team member Grace Santiago but she is keener on John and Charlie is heavily indebted to some shady characters; John gives him the needed money but he is robbed before he can return it. With nowhere else to find the money Charlie's thoughts turn to the money train.This isn't a great film but I rather enjoyed it. Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson have a decent chemistry as the two very different foster brothers and Jennifer Lopez is good as love interest Grace. Robert Blake is suitably unpleasant as Patterson; he makes it easy to root for the brothers when they finally decide to rob his train. The story itself of solid enough although anybody expecting lots of time to be spent on the planning and execution of the robbery will be somewhat disappointed… if the title hadn't been 'Money Train' one would think the film would be about the hunt for the Torch at least until that plot line is wrapped up after about an hour. Inevitable one needs to suspend ones disbelief quite a bit… most notably when the robbery finally takes place and all the guards leave the train, and the money that was already collected, when they collect money from a station. This doesn't matter too much as it was never meant to be particularly realistic; just fun. Overall I'd say that despite its flaws the film is fun; there are some decent laughs and some exciting moments.

Money Train is what happens when someone has a chunk of cash, a nice group of stars but no real story or direction to take their ambition in. Not to say it's a bad movie, on the contrary, it's a huge ton of fun, it's just.. Not much actually happens lol. Stuff happens, but it's more day to day, episodic peeks at the lives of two NYPD cops, and adoptive brothers, played by Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson, as opposed to a focused narrative with actual story beats. The titular train doesn't even figure in until the last 20 minutes. But like I said, it's fun. The two leads have snappy, bickering chemistry as any two buddy cops should. Snipes is the responsible, put-together one, and Harrelson the troubled, hangdog gambling addict. The obligatory girl for them to fight over arrives, giving the story some momentum. Here she's played by Jennifer Lopez, who is extremely underrated as an actress and is always welcome as far as I'm concerned. One segment of the movie has them dealing with a sick freak firebug who likes to burn subway ticket clerks alive in their booths, played by Chris Cooper, looking like a scarecrow who shaves with a cheese grater. The main set piece, if it can be called that, involves them evading the monstrous clutches of the NYC transportation system CEO, played by Robert Blake. He gives the best work of the film, a snarling, obnoxious prick, like a psychopathic monopoly man. Seriously I don't know where this guy gets so much energy from, he's an absolute blast to watch. Blake has had a controversial life that cut his film career achingly short (this and Lynch's Lost Highway were his last appearances). Tragic, as he's a true gem on screen. His character oversees the money train, transporting cash from inner city casinos, which Harrelson eventually sets his sights on. It's an odd, meandering movie, which sounds like it might be slow or boring. Never. Although it wanders and looks for a plot, it never fails to entertain us even with the most mundane character interacted or petty scenarios.

John (Wesley Snipes) and Charlie (Woody Harrelson) are a couple of transit cops and foster brothers. The money train transports the money collected from the system. Chief Donald Patterson (Robert Blake) runs the transit system and he doesn't let anything interferes with the money train. Charlie is a gambler and John has had it with him. Grace Santiago (Jennifer Lopez) is new to their team. Torch (Chris Cooper) is an arsonist. After a fight with other transit cops on the money train, there is $25k missing and Patterson suspects Charlie. The guys are tired of Patterson and Charlie starts a plan to rob the train but John won't have it. John gives Charlie $15k to pay off his debt but an old lady pickpocket steals it. Meanwhile, John and Grace has become a new couple. Grace works undercover and Torch tries to attack her. A wild chase ensues and a drunken Charlie is fired by Patterson. The bad guys still want their money from Charlie and he decides to rob the train.The chemistry for the Snipes Harrelson duo is off. The old chemistry is still there sometimes. However their characters don't even like each other half the time. Granted, the other half of the time they love each other like brothers. Everybody is a little bit annoying and a little bit frustrating. Charlie is especially frustrating. Then Robert Blake has to push so hard over the top douche. When the caper happens, the action goes insane and all reason goes out the window. It turns from a slightly frustrating watch to a loud mess.

While this film is several years old now, it is still not too bad to watch when it shows up on network TV. At the time it came out, both Woody Harrison and Wesly Snipes were HUGE box office draws..so they put them both together in a film..expecting magic to happen. It wasn't a amazing memorable film though. Fun..yes...parts were kind of laughable. The idea of them being "brothers" of sorts was cool too. They aren't perfect people with perfect lives..the flaws were quite clear..but we like them anyway. Adding Robert Blake was great as well. His tightly wound character looked like he could explode at any moment. It makes us wonder about how warped other parts of his life might be. I did think having Jennifer Lopez on board as a female cop/love interest was a little too much. She was just coming onto the scene as a performer..and it shows here...although not much has improved about her acting skills over the years...she needs to stick with music in my opinion.Did we need to be reminded she was a woman AND of ethnic decent too? The part could have been played by anyone...or simply not been added at all. I guess she was more or less eye candy here. I think my favorite part was the ending...when they had rolled the train..and were confronted by Robert Blakes extremely enraged character in the subway. After all they had been through...they still could stay cool enough to handle in with one swift and direct punch...which he dearly deserved. They end up getting away with the crime..which was wrong..yet..right too. Did they deserve all the money? Maybe. The fact they screwed the system and got away with it? Awesome.