Featured Audience Ratings

• Spencer S

  
  This isn't funny. I didn't want you to keep those hopes so high like mine were when I started watching this. Comedy films coming out around this time included Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, City Slickers, and Ghostbusters, films with dopey leads, hard hearted eccentrics,… More
  This isn't funny. I didn't want you to keep those hopes so high like mine were when I started watching this. Comedy films coming out around this time included Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, City Slickers, and Ghostbusters, films with dopey leads, hard hearted eccentrics, and lovelorn women. Many people like to lump this send off to Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train, with the rest of these gems. Based on reviews from this site, my love of anything Danny DeVito or Billy Crystal, and an admiration of zany hard knocks, I truly wanted to see this flick. Not only that but it seemed like a reinterpretation of Hitchcock's thriller, and to have anyone telling me to go see a re-telling and that it's hilarious to boot, I am onboard. Why does this movie not work? It's crazed. It's supposedly black comedy, but I think you have to have people laugh in order to crush yourself into that genre. The fact that they're both writers adds nothing, Danny DeVitoâ(TM)s role is supposed to stupidly endearing but is just a rip-off of Lenny from Of Mice and Men, and Crystal himself doesn't exhibit his superior, odd, and loudly obnoxious persona that made him famous in When Harry Met Sally and City Slickers. No, here he is an incoherent mess with one frame of mind: to kill his ex-wife who has stolen his book and become a wild success. That would have been fine, had they not pounded it to death. I seriously don't know how this haphazard script came to be, though I know it all got made because Danny DeVito directed it. Here his direction doesn't help anything, and we're left with characters who are neither affable nor realistic, and a plot that ambles wherever it so pleases. The ending, or should I say last ten minutes, is the only section that even features the aforementioned train. The mother, Anne Ramsey who made her mark as Mrs. Fratelli in The Goonies, never speaks any audible dialogue other than a rasp here and there and always there is yelling. She's not scary or annoying here, just simply blah, neither slightly mean tempered nor spitefully evil. She is a nothing character, just like everybody else in this disjointed wretch. The villains don't get punished, no one learns any lessons, and somehow Crystal gets out of his writer's block. Is that because he let go of his hate? Because he was still pretty mean to DeVito at the end of the film. It's just so painful and dull. Watch for the actors and nostalgia and that is all.

• Universal D

  
  A little comedic fun riffing off of Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train" premise.

• AJ V

  
  I loved this dark comedy! The cast is brilliant, and although the story sort of borrows from Strangers on a Train, and it even admits to doing so, it's really hilarious, and I highly recommend seeing this movie, it's a lot of fun.

• Lady D

  
  A much better film than I remember this to be, based loosely on Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train, Danny Devito and Billy Crystall make for a great comedy pairing in this films, making an entertaining watch.

• Jens S

  
  Hilarious black humor comedy about a murder pact. DeVito and Crystal work great together and the story offers many Hitchcock quotes and a pretty exciting and funny storyline. The winner of the film has to be Anne Ramsey who created a truly unique and terrifying old hag with her… More
  Hilarious black humor comedy about a murder pact. DeVito and Crystal work great together and the story offers many Hitchcock quotes and a pretty exciting and funny storyline. The winner of the film has to be Anne Ramsey who created a truly unique and terrifying old hag with her character. Much like Crystal's character you're constantly torn between wanting to kill her and remembering your own moral values. Great fun!

• Wahida K

  
  Owen asked his friend, Larry, for a small favor... to Throw Momma from the Train!

• Tim S

  
  Pretty funny.

• Anthony L

  
  Apart from a couple of great lines, it?s not a great comedy

• Film C

  
  This movie is fairly amusing and entertaining but i also found it weird and just a littlebit crazy with danny devito playing a character that you swear is a psychopath but isnt!! It does keep you laughing the storyline and plot are much to b desired though although ok it could have… More
  This movie is fairly amusing and entertaining but i also found it weird and just a littlebit crazy with danny devito playing a character that you swear is a psychopath but isnt!! It does keep you laughing the storyline and plot are much to b desired though although ok it could have been better! Billy crystal plays a writer who is engrosed in his wife with a large amount of hate towards her because she stole his book and now he has writers block, soon oscar (dannydevito) starts harrassing and comes up with an idea o crisscrossing so he'll kill billy crystals wife if billy kills his momma, then this takes on a funride of weird funny scenes! worth a watch? yes but not neccsessarly go out of your way to watch it!

• Jani H

  
  This movie has a geniously simple plot and it totally works. The chemistry between DeVito and Crystal is good and Anne Ramsey... Goddamn, she steals the show totally! Gotta be one of the most loved characters you wanna hate but you simply can't! A dark comedy with some slapstick… More
  This movie has a geniously simple plot and it totally works. The chemistry between DeVito and Crystal is good and Anne Ramsey... Goddamn, she steals the show totally! Gotta be one of the most loved characters you wanna hate but you simply can't! A dark comedy with some slapstick elements. The dialogue is very funny and the timing is something that will leave you laughing out loud. Enjoyed it a lot!

• Lafe F

  
  An overplayed black comedy. Momma is sure ugly, but so is the idea of wanting to kill her. I just never got into this movie, even though I tried watching it enough times.

• xGary X

  
  A few quality laughs from a black comedy inspired by Hitchcock's Strangers On A Train. Anne Ramsey is hilariously monstrous as Devito's momma!

• Tim B

  
  This one manages to tell a chilling story in a touching way.

• Stuart B

  
  I loved this film when i was a kid. Watched it again last year and although its aged it is still a very fun movie.

• Lanning :

  
  The coin collection scene alone makes this movie unforgettable. I'm not a cry-at-the-movies person. That scene still makes me tear up. Flixsters, this movie is loaded with scenes you will never forget. So what? Have I used "forget" and variants of the word… More
  The coin collection scene alone makes this movie unforgettable. I'm not a cry-at-the-movies person. That scene still makes me tear up. Flixsters, this movie is loaded with scenes you will never forget. So what? Have I used "forget" and variants of the word "forget" enough? And speaking of forgetting, don't forget: a writer writes, always :)

• John B

  
  Ah come on. Not too many fans but it was amusing. DeVito and Crystal do a good job here and I think this remake benefits from being put forward as a comedy. It provides a nice counter to the Hitchcock version.

• Alec B

  
  I don't think the more upbeat ending lives up to the darker and more intereting setup but DeVito, Crystal, and Ramsey are all great. I like the way the plot riffs on "Strangers on a Train", where the same plan is implemented by an depressed idiot rather that a evil… More
  I don't think the more upbeat ending lives up to the darker and more intereting setup but DeVito, Crystal, and Ramsey are all great. I like the way the plot riffs on "Strangers on a Train", where the same plan is implemented by an depressed idiot rather that a evil genius.

• Deb S

  
  Billy Crystal is Larry, a novelist whose pompous wife stole his manuscript, and Danny Devito is Owen, a poor guy who gets picked on by "the Mother from Hell," a vile and most annoying woman. After Owen watches an Alfred Hitchcock movie where the prospective assailants decide… More
  Billy Crystal is Larry, a novelist whose pompous wife stole his manuscript, and Danny Devito is Owen, a poor guy who gets picked on by "the Mother from Hell," a vile and most annoying woman. After Owen watches an Alfred Hitchcock movie where the prospective assailants decide to "criss-cross," thereby extinguishing any evidence of motives in their murders, he ponders whether to do the same thing with Larry. Larry does, of course, refuse, but later, a desire for revenge makes him say yes. And so as things play out we see what happens when you try to throw someone's momma from a moving train. A hilariously funny yet tragic comedy that all boils down to a matter of taste.

• Leo L

  
  Absolutely hilarious!! Danny DeVito and Billy Crystal are phenomenal.

• Marion R

  
  It was funny-ish, I wish that it would have been a more darker film.

Read all 20 featured audience ratings