Let's be realistic.

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Very funny comedy version of Strangers on a Train. Billy Crystal plays a teacher named Larry struggling with writer's block after his ex-wife stole his idea and turned it into a successful novel. Danny DeVito is one of Billy's students named Owen, a middle-aged man living with his overbearing mother and daydreaming of killing her. After seeing the aforementioned Alfred Hitchcock movie Strangers on a Train, Owen gets the idea that he and Larry should swap murders. So he takes it upon himself to try and kill Larry's ex.Up to this point the movie is excellent and paced very well. The scenes of DeVito in Hawaii calling Billy to let him know of his plan, each time from a different payphone with a different backdrop even though the calls take place seconds apart, are hilarious. Then the movie becomes about Billy freaking out and doing his routine for awhile. No offense to Billy, he's good in this really, but when the focus isn't on DeVito the movie just isn't as entertaining. So after a strong start it stalls a little, then the last twenty minutes or so feels a tad rushed. It felt like the climax should have been stretched out a bit more. Still, fun movie with lots of laughs. Both stars are in top form with a fine supporting cast backing them up. Some of the students in Billy's writing class are scene stealers. It should go without saying that Anne Ramsey's performance is probably the film's highlight. Every one of her scenes is terrific. This is definitely a movie you'll want to see if you have any interest in the actors involved or if you liked the Hitchcock film and want to see a movie that pays homage to it in a humorous way.

Immensely dark comedy for its time, about writer Crystal and student DeVito plotting a criss-cross murder à la STRANGERS ON A TRAIN. Because of its smooth parallels to Hitchcock's 1950 class, overlooked motifs and subtle details on story development, THROW MOMMA has since become a fun movie to screen in film study classes. Unfortunately, the film's most colorful character, Momma Lift (Ramsey), is way underused; and while Crystal and DeVito are both fine as the leads, neither deliver a memorable enough performance to justify Ramsey's lack of screen-time. DeVito also directed.*** (out of four)

Larry Donner is an author and writing professor who tutors people that want to write books. His life has become a misery when his ex-wife Margaret has published a book he wrote under her name and has become rich over it. Owen Lift, one of Larry's students, offers Larry to kill Margaret, and in return Owen, wants Larry to kill his mother. Larry thinks it's a joke, until he learns Owen has killed his ex-wife. And Larry has now become the prime suspect....Crystal has always been a great screen presence, and Kudos to Devito for taking a back seat and let the other actors take all the best lines and best scenes.It starts off pretty tame, we have Crystal, whining and moaning in every scene, and then Devito, the quiet oddball you know is going to annoy him, so far, so average.But then we get properly introduced to Ramsey, who is just brilliant in her role, and once Crystal has become trapped in Owens house, it never lets up.It's a really dark comedy, but it has such a sweet edge to it, which is evident when Owen talks about his father and especially when he shows Larry his coin collection, which is an incredibly touching scene.But hen Devito doesn't dwell on the sweetness too long, and soon brings Ramsey in to shout a random line (in one particular scene a very random line, which made me rewind several times to see if my hearing was okay).All in all, its a very fun movie, with a slow start, and a fond nod to Hitchcock, with a surprisingly schmaltz free ending.Very underrated

This is a rip off but at least it's a shameless rip off. Director DeVito has Professor Billy Crystal talk Danny DeVito the actor into "going to see a Hitchcock movie" if he wants to learn about motives. DeVito sees the scene in "Strangers on a Train" in which the two stars agree, more or less, to swap murders.The reason DeVito wants to learn about motives and how they function in police procedures is that he wants to murder his foul-mouthed, ugly, domineering mother and get away with it. He can't, of course, because he so obviously hates her. But, as in "Strangers on a Train," he decides to swap murders with Crystal. He'll kill Crystal's hated wife in return for Crystal's killing De Vito's mother.It doesn't work out. One thing after another goes wrong. The things that go wrong are supposed to be funny but most of them aren't. There's an abundance of slapstick, with people running back and forth in a frenzy, people hiding from others, people falling off ships, people hanging by their heels from a train.DeVito is a smart guy and a clever director sometimes. Anyone who directed the black comedy "The War of the Roses" can't be completely clumsy. But he's pretty awkward here, given to obvious shots of himself approaching the camera pop-eyed and wearing black gloves when attempting to snuff Crystal's wife. It's almost embarrassing.Crystal, too, can be extremely amusing as the ordinary guy swept up into some nightmarish scenario, as he was in "Analyze This!" I'd put off watching this because the trailers all featured the same shot. DeVito and Crystal are at the table. DeVito shovels scrambled eggs into their plates, then hits Crystal over the head with the frying pan. BONK! And Crystal falls down. I figured, "If this is the best it's got, I might as well skip it." It's almost the best it's got.