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Throw Momma from the Train
1987 - PG-13 - 88 Mins.
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| Director: Danny DeVito | | Producer: Larry Brezner | | Written By: Stu Silver | | Starring: Billy Crystal, Danny DeVito, Anne Ramsey, Kim Greist, Rob Reiner, Bruce Kirby |
| Review by: John Ulmer |
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911, there's a deranged midget in my house!
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"Throw Momma From the Train" is a simple dark comedy with lots of laughs. Billy Crystal plays a frustrated writer on the verge of collapse; Danny DeVito plays a man in one of Crystal's writing classes. Crystal's ex-wife is a *hag* to put it nicely, and Crystal hates her. DeVito, sensing this, offers Crystal a deal one night: DeVito will kill Crystal's wife, if Crystal kills DeVito's nag of a mother. Crystal does, of course, refuse, but later, corruption deep in his heart makes him say yes. And so as things play out we see what happens when you try to throw someone's momma from a moving train.
This story is an interesting character study; a story of evil, greed, revenge, ego, trust, doing what's right, but most of all corruption. We see Crystal's white-collar writer become ever-stressed with events colliding around him, and because of DeVito's constant nagging, he says "yes." But we know deep down in his subconscious he wanted to say "yes," and he's pleased that he said it to DeVito.
This movie is a bit of a dark spoof on Hitchcock's immortal film "Strangers on a Train," and it plays an homage to the film early on, when there is a theater playing "Strangers on a Train." We see DeVito watching the movie, and a lightbulb in his head pops on. He gets an idea. Throw Momma from the train!
Billy Crystal gives another convincing and strangely comical performance as a hassled writer on the verge of collapse. He has been so beaten down by everything around him that his inner-emotions come out and he agrees to throw DeVito's momma from the train.
Danny DeVito directed this film excellently. He uses just the right touch of comic darkness to create a world of corruption and sickness. Everything is demented, but not to an extreme like in some other dark comedies. It has just the right touch of darkness that shone through in "The War of the Roses."
Not only is "Throw Momma From the Train" a simple tale of corruption and morality, but is also an interesting character study. Definitely worth catching on TV.
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