Throw Momma from the Train 4K 1987

“Throw Momma from the Train.” It’s what my soul had been craving for over 20 years. “You lie to me!”—they said on screen, and one of them smacked the other across the face with a frying pan. Oh! What more could a kid want? I burst out laughing when I saw that scene. And now, as I’m wrapping up my thirties, I still find myself thinking about this movie.

For three-quarters of the movie, I sat with my hand propping up my cheek. The film struck me as absurdly strange. Even somewhat idiotic. Yet I didn’t feel the urge to turn it off. After all, I was watching a movie whose trailer I’d fished out of the memories of my distant childhood.

Is there any point to this movie?..

Maybe.

Tit for tat. That’s the main idea behind the whole film. I don’t even know if it’s a comedy or a family thriller. The protagonist, Danny DeVito, is a crazy, spoiled mama’s boy. She’s “nailed” him so thoroughly that this mature man of mine just can’t seem to grow out of childhood. Mom won’t let him. Speaking of Mom—she’s quite the shrew (of royal proportions).

Will she kill him, or won’t she?—that’s what my interest boiled down to. Even the image of the writer sort of faded away.

The movie is dull, lifeless. And it’s no surprise that it fizzled out as soon as it got started…

And the biggest disappointment is that not even the radiance of my childhood can save it. And since it comes from there (from my radiant, I tell you, childhood), I’ll rate it just a little higher, but I don’t think the film quite merits a positive review. And it falls short by a long shot…