Film Review: Throw Momma from the Train (1987)

Release Date: December 11th, 1987
Directed by: Danny DeVito
Written by: Stu Silver
Music by: David Newman
Cast: Danny DeVito, Billy Crystal, Anne Ramsey, Kim Greist, Kate Mulgrew, Rob Reiner, Annie Ross, Olivia Brown, Oprah Winfrey (cameo)

Throw Momma, Rollins, Morra & Brezner, Orion Pictures, 88 Minutes

Review:

“Don’t you “In a minute, Momma” me! Get off your fat little ass or I’ll break it for you! I want two soft-boiled eggs, white toast, and some of that grape jelly goddammit! And don’t burn the toast!” – Momma

Man, I haven’t seen this since the ’80s but it held up pretty well and I found it as hilarious and amusing now, as I probably did back then when I was too young to grasp all of the clever humorous bits.

Danny DeVito and Billy Crystal make a pretty great comedic duo and this film really capitalizes on their strengths. The scenes they share with Anne Ramsey are also good and she was pretty believable as DeVito’s mean and overbearing mother.

Now that I’m older, I also appreciated the plot more, as it is basically a twist on one of Hitchcock’s classics, Strangers On A Train. With that, DeVito assumes Crystal gave him the plan of killing his ex-wife and in exchange, Crystal would kill DeVito’s mother.

For most of the movie, you believe that DeVito actually killed the ex-wife and this puts pressure on Crystal to kill the mother, as he realizes he is in deep shit and needs to keep a lid on things.

While the plot sounds ridiculous, it really sets up a good black comedy scenario and the two leads just commit to the script and put in performances so good, it’s really easy to get swept up in the story and not worry about whether or not it’s realistic. Frankly, this is meant to be a bit surreal.

The cool thing about this picture is that DeVito directed it. I think he did a pretty solid job and he definitely got a stupendous performance out of Anne Ramsey, who left this planet a year or so later.

Throw Momma From the Train was just good escapism and it featured two legendary comedic actors in their prime, who happened to have good chemistry.

Honestly, I wish these two would’ve done more together.

Rating: 7/10
Pairs well with: other ’80s and early ’90s comedies, specifically those with Danny DeVito or Billy Crsytal.

Film Review: Scrooged (1988)

Also known as: Scrooge: A Christmas Carol (original script title)
Release Date: November 17th, 1988 (Los Angeles premiere)
Directed by: Richard Donner
Written by: Mitch Glazer, Michael O’Donoghue
Based on: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Music by: Danny Elfman
Cast: Bill Murray, Karen Allen, John Forsythe, Bobcat Goldthwait, Carol Kane, Robert Mitchum, Michael J. Pollard, Alfre Woodard, John Glover, David Johansen, Mary Ellen Trainor, Mabel King, John Murray, Wendie Malick, Brain Doyle-Murray, Lee Majors (cameo), Miles Davis (cameo), Robert Goulet (cameo), Paul Shaffer (cameo), Buddy Hackett, Mary Lou Retton, Jamie Farr, Anne Ramsey, Logan Ramsey, Delores Hall, Joel Murray

Paramount Pictures, Mirage Productions, 101 Minutes

Review:

“That’s the one good thing about regret: it’s never too late. You can always change tomorrow if you want to.” – Claire Phillips

Scrooged is my favorite Christmas movie that doesn’t fit in the action or horror genres, even though it has a wee bit of those two things. It’s a comedy starring the legendary Bill Murray and it was directed by Richard Donner, coming off of Lethal Weapon, Ladyhawke and The Goonies.

The film also has an all-star cast comprised of a few legends, a few solid character actors and the always lovely Karen Allen and Alfre Woodard.

It’s a modernized adaptation of Charles Dickens’ most famous story, A Christmas Carol. Bill Murray essentially plays Ebeneezer Scrooge but in this story, he’s named Frank Cross and he is the president of a major television network, stressed out over the live televised adaptation of A Christmas Carol that he is producing.

As can be expected with adaptations of this story, Cross is visited by three ghosts: The Ghost of Christmas Past, The Ghost of Christmas Present and The Ghost of Christmas Future. He is taken on a journey through his life and is shown his fate if he doesn’t wise up and change his ways.

There aren’t any shocking twists or deviations from the traditional story structure of A Christmas Carol, other than setting it in contemporary times and modifying some of the smaller details to fit what was ’80s pop culture society.

The film has a good bit of crude humor but it’s nothing that’s off putting or that takes away from the spirit of Dickens’ classic story. In fact, I love the update and frankly, for the time that this came out in and the inclusion of Murray, this was probably the most palatable version of the story that had been adapted. It’s not strict to the source material but it benefits because of that while keeping the original plot structure intact.

Scrooged may feel dated to some and like a product of its time but it is a classic Christmas film for many, myself included, and it doesn’t get old. I think a lot of that has to do with the charisma supernova that is Bill Murray while the kind nature of Karen Allen, as well as the fantastic cast around Murray, make this something unique, special and entertaining.

Plus, there is just something perfect about Danny Elfman’s score in this film. It sets the tone for the picture immediately and it just accents and enhances the movie like a great musical score should.

Rating: 8.75/10
Pairs well with: other great non-traditional Christmas movies of the ’80s like Trading Places, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Die Hard, Gremlins and Lethal Weapon.

Film Review: The Goonies (1985)

Release Date: June 7th, 1985
Directed by: Richard Donner
Written by: Chris Columbus, Steven Spielberg
Music by: Dave Grusin
Cast: Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Jeff Cohen, Corey Feldman, Kerri Green, Martha Plimpton, Jonathan Ke Huy Quan, John Matuszak, Robert Davi, Joe Pantoliano, Anne Ramsey, Mary Ellen Trainor

Amblin Entertainment, Warner Bros., 109 Minutes

Review:

“Don’t you realize? The next time you see sky, it’ll be over another town. The next time you take a test, it’ll be in some other school. Our parents, they want the best of stuff for us. But right now, they got to do what’s right for them. Because it’s their time. Their time! Up there! Down here, it’s our time. It’s our time down here. That’s all over the second we ride up Troy’s bucket.” – Mikey

Cyndi Lauper sang that the “Goonies ‘r’ good enough” and frankly, I have to agree with her.

This is a perfect movie for kids… and adults, really. It’s fun, funny, full of adventure, danger, treasure, good feelings, friendship, imagination, wonderment and a bit of swashbuckling.

On top of that, every single person in the cast is absolutely perfect, top to bottom. This was just a special movie where everything seemed to go right, especially in regards to the actors chosen for each specific role.

On one side, you have the kids and their hulk-like ally Sloth. On the other side, you have the Fratelli crime family.

Every kid in this is great and they had spectacular chemistry. You believed that they were all friends and it was impossible not to root for them. With the Fratellis, you had another group that worked damn well together. Honestly, as a kid I kind of wanted a Fratelli spinoff movie. Sadly, Anne Ramsey died a few years after this but I’ve always wanted to see Robert Davi and Joe Pantoliano come together as gangster brothers again.

Apart from the casting, you had a wonderful script penned by Chris Columbus from a story written by Steven Spielberg. With Richard Donner directing, it’s kind of hard to imagine this failing, even before seeing the picture.

It’s very rare that I come across someone that hasn’t seen the film. It’s reputation precedes it and for good reason. It has stood the test of time and it’s not something that loses steam the more you watch it. In fact, at least for me, it’s a film that I appreciate more with every viewing. It’s hard to peg as to why that is but man, it’s a film that just brings you to a special place; it’s magical and it is full of optimism when most entertainment, at least in modern times, is pretty nihilistic.

The Goonies gives one hope because it is exactly what entertainment needs to be, pleasant and enjoyable escapism that leaves you with a positive feeling despite whatever crap your day threw at you.

It’s perfectly paced, there isn’t a dull moment and every frame of the film… hell, every line spoken, has a purpose and has real meaning behind it.

The Goonies also benefits from its stupendous score by Dave Grusin, a guy who isn’t as well known as John Williams, James Horner or Alan Silvestri but was still able to create a theme and a score that was good enough to rival the best work of those three great film composers.

For what it is, The Goonies is absolutely perfect. If you don’t like it, you probably aren’t human or at least don’t have a heart.

Rating: 10/10
Pairs well with: The Monster Squad, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and The Explorers.

Vids I Dig 028: Cecil Says: ‘The Goonies’: A Tale of White Privilege

Cecil discusses the American classic The Goonies and truly breaks it down to its core.

Film Review: Deadly Friend (1986)

Release Date: October 10th, 1986
Directed by: Wes Craven
Written by: Bruce Joel Rubin
Based on: Friend by Diana Henstell
Music by: Charles Bernstein
Cast: Matthew Laborteaux, Kristy Swanson, Michael Sharrett, Anne Twomey, Anne Ramsey, Charles Fleischer

Warner Bros., 91 Minutes

Review:

As Wes Craven passed away not too long ago, I’ve been inspired to watch some of his more obscure films. Especially those I haven’t seen for a long time. That brings me to this film, Deadly Friend.

This 1986 picture is based on the 1985 novel Friend by Diana Henstell. I have no idea how close this is to the book but the premise is about the same. Well, the second half of this movie is the same as the premise of the book. This is actually two movies in one.

The first half of the film deals with a boy named Paul moving to a new house, where he meets a girl and goes on fun adventures with her, some other kid that faints a lot and his pet robot named B.B. The second half of the film sees Paul implant a microchip into the brain of the girl, as she is dead – following her abusive father tossing her down some steps. The microchip makes her go on a killing spree and gives her robotic dance moves and crazy eyes. She essentially becomes the overly attached girlfriend with awkward dance moves.

I have to give props for the first half of the film because the people who built the robot B.B. did a fine job. He was a cool character for the most part and looked great for a film that had a very limited budget.

Well, I am assuming it was really limited, as the other special effects were atrocious. I mean, the death by basketball scene was cool, initially. For instance, when the head exploded it looked great. But then when the headless animatronic body was moving around, it looked nothing like Anne Ramsey. The robot face tearing through the human face at the end of the film was horrible. Kristy Swanson postmortem just had blue eye shadow to show that she was basically a robo-zombie.

After what Craven did with A Nightmare On Elm Street, two years before this, Deadly Friend was a huge step backwards in creativity and ingenuity. This was at the height of practical effects but they just take you too far out of the movie here.

Yet, there is something magical about this film despite the nonsensical plot, poorly written characters with confusing motivations and mostly shitty special effects.

This film is worth watching just for how bizarre and unique it truly is. In fact, it is like Chopping Mall meets Re-animator starring Mama Fratelli from The Goonies and the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And I could never express how much I loved Anne Ramsey, as a kid. From The Goonies, to this and Throw Mama From the Train – she was always great. I also preferred Kristy Swanson’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer film over the Sarah Michelle Gellar TV show. No, I am not a fan of Joss Whedon, at all… sorry, not sorry.

This isn’t Wes Craven’s finest film but it is certainly better than the films later in his career. It is far from perfect but weird enough to make it memorable and enjoyable.

Rating: 7/10