While this film got a lot of publicity when it debuted, I think it's not much better than an average film. The best aspects of the film are some of the funny little moments, but the film never seems to sustain them for very long and the overall film is a lot blander and uninteresting than you would assume based on the plot. The movie is a very loose remake of Hitchcock's STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, though comedy takes center stage instead of suspense.

Danny DeVito lives with his mother--who is the vilest and most annoying lady on the planet, played by Anne Ramsey. In some ways, Ramsey is excellent as the easy to hate mom, but she has a serious speech impediment due to real-life cancer surgery that often made it difficult to understand her. She almost needed to be subtitled or re-dubbed in order to understand what she was saying. I actually enjoyed DeVito's performance the most as the sweet but simple-minded guy who finally had enough! Billy Crystal is a writing teacher who has DeVito as a student. They become friends, of sort, though it's obvious that DeVito puts far more stock in this than Crystal. Later, DeVito offers to kill Crsytal's evil ex-wife (Kate Mulgrew) if Crystal kills Momma. Then, the plot gets pretty weird--and I'll leave that up to you to see.

Spread throughout the film were some funny, though not sustained moments. My favorite involved DeVito imagining a pair of scissors stuck through his mom's head! It sounds cruel, but it was done in one of the funnier scenes I have ever seen. I also like the one bit character in Crystal's writing class that keeps writing books about all the women with which he would like to have sex--it's pretty funny when he meets women and you see him penciling in their names in his book.

A good but highly uneven film.

If you had a mother that described you like that, you just might be looking to bump her off yourself. It's how Danny DeVito feels about Anne Ramsey, it's just how to put the plan in action.

And his creative writing class taught by Professor Billy Crystal gives him the idea. That and a viewing of Alfred Hitchcock's classic Strangers On A Train which gives DeVito the idea to switch murders with Crystal who hates his wife, Kate Mulgrew, who not only is cheating him out of an idea for a book he wanted to write, but is also carrying on with hunky Tony Ciccone.

Throw Momma From The Train plays out kind of like Strangers On A Train as DeVito seems to have carried out his end of the murder scheme. But Crystal's having a bit of a problem putting Ramsey down even with Danny's help. That woman might need killing, but she's going to take a lot of it.

The only Academy recognition that Throw Momma From The Train got was an Academy Award nomination for Anne Ramsey for Best Supporting Actress. Ramsey lost to Olympia Dukakis for Moonstruck, but the film turned out to be her finest hour. Ramsey already had the throat cancer that would eventually kill her the following year, but look at the list of credits she managed to amass even after Throw Momma From The Train, she worked right up to the end.

I've seen interviews with both of the stars of Throw Momma From The Train, Billy Crystal and Danny DeVito, and both have gladly conceded that Anne Ramsey's performance as the mother from hell both made the film the success it was and stole it out from under them. Their acknowledgment of Ramsey's talent and performance is the best possible tribute.

If Marion Lorne in Strangers On A Train had been anything like Anne Ramsey here, Farley Granger would gladly have joined Robert Walker in disposing of her. Throw Momma From A Train is one of the best black comedies out there, should not be missed.

Larry Donner (Billy Crystal) is an author suffering from writer's block. He hates his ex-wife Margaret (Kate Mulgrew) who stole his book, and published the best seller as her own. Owen Lift (Danny DeVito) is one of Larry's clueless writing students. He hates his hateful mother (Anne Ramsey). Owen keeps stalking Larry about his writing about murder. When Larry suggests Owen watch Alfred Hitchcock's 'Strangers on a Train', Owen assumes that Larry is saying that he will kill Owen's mother if Owen kills Larry's ex-wife. Then Owen goes to Hawaii to kill Margaret. The problem is that Larry has no alibi, the cops are on his case, and Owen expects Larry to kill his mother.

This is a great dark comedy. Danny DeVito is terrific as the idiot. Billy Crystal is neurotic and angry. They have great chemistry together. Anne Ramsey is the best ugly bully. It's Danny DeVito's big screen directorial debut. He does a good job letting the actors room to work. It is well worth a watch.