Throw Momma from the Train

Though she doesn't really feature enough, Anne Ramsey does steal the show with her scenes as the mother whom henpecked son "Owen" (Danny DeVito) wants to chuck from the train! Meantime, stagnating author "Larry" is shouting as the television whilst his ex-wife "Margaret" (Kate Mulgrew) is doing the chat show circuit with a book he claimed to have written. He would cheerfully see her dead, and that's exactly what happens when his student "Owen" takes advantage of a scenario on a luxury yacht. Thing is, he owns up to "Larry" and demands - à la "Strangers on a Train" (1951) - a quid pro quo. "Larry" isn't keen on becoming a murderer though, but having encountered the harridan mother first-hand and having become a police suspect in the demise of his former wife he might find his options limited! I'm not really a lover of buddy comedy as such. Usually the scenarios are so obviously contrived to get a series of laughs before a dead cert conclusion that you could have written them yourself. This one isn't really very different on that front, but DeVito and Crystal do work well together keeping the story from becoming too formulaic and at times it provides quite a poignant assessment of friendship and marriage. I had forgotten just how big Oprah's hair was in the 1980s!