BEFORE: Well, as long as we're down in the NYC subways...
THE PLOT: A vengeful New York transit cop decides to steal a trainload of subway fares; his foster brother, a fellow cop, tries to protect him.
AFTER: I suppose if you can believe Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes playing brothers (OK, foster brothers...) then you can believe in a magical "money train" that travels from station to station, collecting the money from the token booths. Of course, this was made back in the day when the NYC subway system used tokens (it's all farecards now) and when there were token booth clerks (something of a rare sight these days, they've been mostly replaced by farecard dispensers)
I remember when this movie came out, it caused major headaches for the NYC transit cops, since it gave people bad ideas - there's a character that sprays flammable liquid through the small hole in the token booth in an attempt to burn token clerks, and for a while there was a real concern about copycats. There's also parts in the film where our heroes ride on top of a subway train, another practice that the MTA didn't like to encourage.
This was the second team-up for Harrelson and Snipes, after "White Men Can't Jump", and they do work well together. Jennifer Lopez (before she was J-Lo) completes the love triangle, she starts out by flirting with Harrelson's character but ultimately has more of an attraction to Snipes' character. Also appearing is Robert Blake (before he was a murder suspect) and Chris Cooper (before he was at all famous) as the creepy token-booth firebug. Also cameos from two "Sopranos" stars - Vincent "Big Pussy" Pastore as a gambler's thug (what else?) and Aida Turturro as a woman who tries to take an undercover cop (pretending to be drunk) home for some fun...
Obviously I can't speak for the authenticity of the action sequences, but they are spectacular, more exciting than anything seen in last night's film. IMDB has a sizable list of continuity errors, plotholes and factual mistakes, but it's not much larger than for any other film. But wouldn't a fired transit cop lead the list of suspects after a robbery of the "money train"? In "Pelham 1, 2, 3" the cops went right to work compiling a list of disgruntled ex-transit workers as possible suspects. And an ex-cop assaulting an officer is still against the law - even if he deserved it.
RATING: 6 out of 10 turnstiles
No comments:
Post a Comment