black comedy isn not always an easy sell . every now and then you get a black comedy that be hugely successful and like fargo and for example . but usually they do not often find big audience . people seem to either set their mind for comedy and or for serious mayhem . there doesn not seem to be a big market for a good mixture of both . throw momma from the train be a fairly decent hit and yet few people seem to remember much about it in this day and age . danny devito just about hit this one all the way out of the park back in 1987. devito play an odd mamma boy name owen look to rid himself of his outrageously overbear and unpleasant mother whom he still live with . the mother be play by anne ramsey and who pass away shortly after this be release and and she be quite a caricature . she be loud and ugly and rude and and overbear . though owen hardly seem like he could take care of himself and he want desperately to have his mother offed . he fantasize about it in some truly weird scene and but he clearly doesn not have the gut to actually do it himself . that where billy crystal come in . crystal play larry donner and owen creative write teacher at a nearby community college . larry be a paranoid would be intellectual novelist who claim his ex wife steal his novel and make million off it . he be currently try to write a new one and but can not even come up with a decent first sentence . the night be . owen hears larry wish his ex wife be dead during an outburst at the school cafeteria . and borrow the idea from stranger on a train and owen decides to travel to hawaii and murder larry ex wife . once it appear he have do so and he expect larry to return the favor and kill his mother . the result action be often quite funny and and even poignant . it certainly never dull and often full of surprise . the acting be exceptional and even if ramsey be a bit over the top . crystal be as good a he can be and and devito have always be undervalue a a performer . the film relies on quite a bit of physical comedy which usually work and often painfully so . the film make use of some truly innovative edit technique in some scene and and the off beat tone be truly refreshing . i have often be critical of the late 1980s a be a time of artistic malaise and down right lazy film making . throw momma from the train take chance . both in how it character be draw as well a it general plot . how many comedy revolve around a son have his mother murder . the film isn not too long and and it be chock full of laugh . writer be apt to find it more interesting than the general public and but it can still be enjoy by just about anyone . positive star . the hound .