Throw Momma from the Train (1987)

'Throw Momma from the Train' is a dark comedy riff off the Alfred Hitchcock classic 'Strangers on a Train', here directed and co-staring Danny DeVito. Billy Crystal is the other half of the "criss cross" duo, a depressive writing teacher whose over eager student (DeVito) misunderstands him to a suggest a murder swap, Crystal's ex-wife (Kate Mulgrew) in exchange for DeVito's overbearing mother ('The Goonies' Anne Ramsey as a women you'd want to throw off a train). I liked, for the most part, the style of the film and the lead performances, and some sequences are very funny, but on the whole it was uneven with a lot of relatively dull spots. One review I skimmed said given the concept and the cast it really should have been a better movie, I'd agree with that, it comes across as not fully developed, like an early draft was filmed by mistake, I'd say more time probably should have been spent perfecting this thing in the writing. I mean "a writer writers" after all, still fit viewing for times when "the night was humid." **1/2