Review of Throw Momma from the Train (1987) by Becca K — 07 Jul 2008

Eh. It had a few funny lines, but overall, it wasn't nearly as funny as most murder comedies I've seen.

I think it would have been funnier if it was less cartoony; these characters didn't act even remotely human. I mean, if a real teacher found out that his careless wording inadvertently convinced one of his, ahem, "slower" students to kill his ex-wife, would he (A) scream, curse and flip out, yelling "Oh my God, what have I done?" at the top of his lungs? Or (B) start jumping around like a moron and babble incoherently about motives and alibis? "Throw Mamma from the Train" keeps insisting on B. And call me crazy, but when the "slow" student called the teacher asking him to kill his mother ("Criss-cross -- I kill yours, you kill mine," he says), I think that any sane person -- accidental murderer or not -- would go straight to the police, not pretend to go along with it.

Look, I'm not saying that a comedy about accidental murderers needs to be realistic, just more believable. I can deal with zany and over-the-top antics if the characters at least act like people (and consistently) but "Throw Mama's" characters don't. One minute they're all too eager to kill; the next they want nothing to do with death -- and we can't figure out why. It would have been funnier if the writers had picked a side and stuck with it, instead of flip-flopping like John Kerry.

And one more thing -- I hated the ending. Movies about accidental murder shouldn't wrap up so neatly.