{"id":4163,"date":"2024-09-22T04:07:49","date_gmt":"2024-09-22T04:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=4163"},"modified":"2024-10-13T18:30:45","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T22:30:45","slug":"throw-momma-from-the-train","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/22\/throw-momma-from-the-train\/","title":{"rendered":"Throw Momma from the Train"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Throw Momma from the Train<\/strong> (1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Orion\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 88 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (sexual content, language, comic violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Danny DeVito\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Stu Silver\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: David Newman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Barry Sonnenfeld\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 11, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Danny DeVito, Billy Crystal, Kim Greist, Anne Ramsey, Kate Mulgrew, Branford Marsalis, Rob Reiner, Bruce Kirby, Joey DePinto, Annie Ross, Raye Birk, Oprah Winfrey, Olivia Brown, Philip Perlman, Stu Silver.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $57.9M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0In civilized society, matricide isn\u2019t funny. It\u2019s not supposed to be anyway. It definitely shouldn\u2019t be the premise for a comedy. That is, unless you\u2019re talking about a harridan like Mrs. Lift (Ramsay, The Goonies), the titular mother of Throw Momma from the Train<\/strong>. It changes things drastically. She is the baddest mother of all mothers. She\u2019s the kind of mother that makes being an orphan sound good. She makes Joan Crawford look like Mother of the Year. She’s somebody that Mother Theresa and Gandhi would both want to kill. That is, if her son doesn\u2019t beat them to it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cMomma\u201d is a perfectly awful woman who makes life miserable for her long-suffering son Owen (DeVito, Ruthless People) who frequently fantasizes about doing her in. He\u2019s a lonely, middle-aged schlub who still lives at home with his harsh, disagreeable and paranoid mother. He\u2019s ostensibly her caretaker, but punching bag feels more like it. She yells at him, puts him down, smacks him around and castigates him for minor infractions like buying unsalted peanuts. She\u2019s convinced that he\u2019s secretly planning to put her in a home. Is it any wonder Owen has poor social skills?<\/p>\n

\u00a0His only refuge is a creative writing course taught by Larry Donner (Crystal, Running Scared), a struggling novelist dealing with writer\u2019s block. He just can\u2019t finish that first sentence, \u201cThe night was….\u201d The night was what? Was it dark? Wet? Humid? What? He\u2019s resentful of his ex-wife Margaret (Mulgrew, Ryan\u2019s Hope) for good reason. The successful book she\u2019s touting on all the talk shows is really his. She didn\u2019t write it; she just put her name on it and claimed credit. He\u2019s understandably angry and wants her to die. He makes no effort to hide his contempt either. He\u2019s about to wish that he did.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Owen goes to Larry for advice on how to improve his writing skills. Actually, he badgers him in and out of the classroom. An annoyed Larry suggests he view a Hitchcock thriller to gain insight into plot development. He goes to see Strangers on a Train which is where he begins to formulate a plan based on the classic movie\u2019s premise. In his feeble mind, he believes his instructor is suggesting that they each kill the person who\u2019s making the other\u2019s life a living hell. They swap murders, criss-cross, get it? Next thing he knows, Larry gets a call from Owen informing him he just killed Margaret. Now he expects Larry to kill his mother in return. Larry isn\u2019t even willing to entertain the idea. That is, until he meets and experiences her for himself (“She’s not a woman, she’s the Terminator.”).<\/p>\n

\u00a0While Larry tries to gather the courage to carry out the act of murder, the police zero in on him as the prime suspect in his ex-wife\u2019s presumed murder (technically, she\u2019s a missing person). He\u2019s forced to hide out at Owen\u2019s until he can clear his name. In order to guarantee Owen\u2019s silence, he agrees to kill his overbearing mother. What follows is a wacky series of murder attempts foiled at every turn by Momma. It\u2019s not unlike the never-ending rivalry between Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. These scenes are especially funny thanks to the distinctive cinematography of Barry Sonnenfeld, the guy who helped make Raising Arizona the comedy classic it is. The man has serious skills with a camera. He films slapstick sequences better than anybody. The physical humor in Throw Momma from the Train <\/strong>is well-orchestrated and funny. Larry is the target of some painful gags involving frying pans to the head and canes to the crotch.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In a surprising but not undeserved move, Ramsay was nominated for an Oscar (Best Supporting Actress) for her performance in Throw Momma from the Train<\/strong>. It\u2019s an honor usually reserved for more prestigious films, but a brilliant comedic performance like Ramsay\u2019s occasionally manages to sneak its way in there. She ultimately lost to Olympia Dukakis for Moonstruck, but it was still great to see her acknowledged for creating the definitive movie momster. You can\u2019t help but laugh as she abuses, berates, insults and terrorizes poor Owen. I still laugh when she shouts, \u201cOWEN!!!!! You stupid poop!!!\u201d On the surface, she\u2019s horrible. If you look closely, you can see an old lady fearful of losing the one person who cares about her.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The two leads do a good job in their respective roles. DeVito\u2019s character is more than just a dim, pathetic mama\u2019s boy with boundary issues. He\u2019s more sympathetic than that. He\u2019s a man-child who loves and misses his father. His defining scene is where he shows Larry his coin collection that turns out to be change his father let him keep during their outings together. It\u2019s a sweet scene that doesn\u2019t quite fit in a supposed black comedy; I\u2019ll circle back to that shortly. As Larry, equal parts arrogant, annoyed and angry, Crystal does a first-rate job. Here\u2019s a man who can\u2019t let go of his past despite the damage it\u2019s doing to his present and future, especially in regard to his relationship with current girlfriend Beth (Greist, Manhunter). What\u2019s even cooler is that the two high-wattage comedy stars have great chemistry. It doesn\u2019t always turn out this way, but this time it does.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As much as I like Throw Momma from the Train<\/strong>, I do have one critique. It needs a nastier edge if it wants to be an effective black comedy. It needs heartless characters like the ones that populate Ruthless People. First-time director DeVito makes a genuine effort, but doesn\u2019t quite get there. It\u2019s funny, but not as funny as it could have been with a colder heart. That said, it\u2019s not a bad directorial debut for one of the best comic actors in the industry. DeVito has an excellent sense of comic timing. The scene where he interrupts himself talking about murder to exclaim, \u201cLook, cows!\u201d as he and Larry drive past a billboard advertising a dairy is one of the movie\u2019s best moments.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Throw Momma from the Train<\/strong> is like Strangers on a Train on laughing gas. DeVito has a great time goofing on the premise. It almost seems to condone murder by the way it paints the intended targets as horrible people deserving of a violent demise. It\u2019s certainly true in the case of Larry\u2019s ex-wife. She\u2019s a snotty, entitled, conceited bitch who insults him publicly on Oprah Winfrey’s show. Mulgrew succeeds in creating a truly hateful character with no redeeming qualities. If only the rest of Throw Momma from the Train<\/strong> was this courageous. Don\u2019t get me wrong, it\u2019s a good movie. It just could have been better with a harsher edge. Still, it\u2019s funny and that\u2019s what really counts in the end.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Throw Momma from the Train (1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Orion\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 88 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (sexual content, language, comic violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Danny DeVito\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Stu Silver\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: David Newman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Barry Sonnenfeld\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 11, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Danny DeVito, Billy Crystal, Kim Greist, Anne Ramsey, Kate Mulgrew, Branford Marsalis, Rob Reiner, Bruce Kirby, Joey DePinto, Annie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Throw-Momma-from-the-Train-.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4163"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5633,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4163\/revisions\/5633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}