Product Description

Get ready for a runaway comedy that's right on track! "Danny DeVito and Billy Crystal are hilarious[and] Anne Ramsey is hysterically frightful" (The Hollywood Reporter) in this "wickedly screwball" (Playboy) laugh riot that won a Golden GlobeÂ(r) nomination* for DeVito and anOscarÂ(r) nomination** for Ramsey. With Rob Reiner and Oprah Winfrey on board for cameos, this fast-track comedy "will certainly make you laugh" (Newsweek)! Writing teacher Larry Donner (Crystal) and his student Owen Lift (DeVito) have a lot in common: the women in their lives are driving them mad! Larry's ex-wife Margaret (Kate Mulgrew) stole his novel and made it her own bestseller, and Owen's mother (Ramsey) is a monster! But Owen has a plan to kill both problems literally! He'll murder Margaret while Larry sends Momma to her maker! But when Owen fulfills his end of the deal before telling his teacher, Larry's left with no alibi and an outrageous obligation to knock off the nastiest old lady he's ever met! *1987: Actor **1987: Supporting Actress

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7643 in DVD
• Brand: DEVITO,DANNY
• Released on: 2005-05-31
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Original recording remastered, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds
• Running time: 88 minutes

Customer Reviews

Finally added this classic to my DVD collection
Really, how can you go wrong? Billy Crystal and Danny Devito in their primes. I still hear the old lady's voice in my head whenever I hear the name Owen. This movie is hysterical, both in situational and physical comedy. Devito and Crystal made a good team, it would have been nice to see them work on another film together. Owen's mother is played by the same woman who played Mama Fratelli in the Goonies. A great character actress, she makes you hate her as soon as she makes her entrance. Devito is wonderful in his portrayal of an immature man who stills lives with his mother and can't seem to stand up on his own. Crystal plays one of his classic type roles, similar to the Albert Brooks characters, the whiny and frustrated average Joe. A very fun dark comedy, one that every comedy fan should own.

What a Momma!
Despite the dark story that lurks behind the comedy in this film it is entirely entertaining from beginning to end.

Larry (Billy Crystal) is a creative writing teacher with a class full of inept writers. He is divorced from a woman (Kate Mulgrew) who has taken his novel and "written" it herself and is now receiving all the glory. Larry is stewing. One of Larry's students, Owen (Danny DeVito), becomes obsessed with a murder mystery he is working on and he follows Larry around hoping for a moment of his attention. Owen has issues....his Momma (Anne Ramsey). The fun begins with a mistaken clue being taken by Owen to mean that he and Larry should criss-cross their anger and murder one another's nemesis and it all leads to a completely amusing journey into the dark part of a suffering mind.

Danny DeVito is the king of black comedy and here he stars and directs with a talented ability to find humor in the darkest desires. Along with Billy Crystal they complete a madcap comedy duo in search of some relief from those who taunt their insecurities. The stand out talent in this film is of course Anne Ramsey, who as Momma, will make you roar with laughter....you stupid poop! For you writers out there this movie takes a great look at the inevitable block that stares us in the face every now and then. Get ready to laugh and store this classic close at hand to re-watch time and again when your own heart feels a little heavy and you need a dose of Momma to ease the pain.

Absolutely hilarious
Absolutely hilarious from the beginning to the end! Billy Crystal plays a creative writing instructor who has writer's block. He also has an ex-wife who has just published a best seller. His best seller. He is frustrated with the writer's block, furious with his ex-wife for stealing his book and being driven insane by the pathetic stories coming through his creative writers class (i.e. 40 yards of Nawgahide and a Dream - the story of an upholsterer).

Danny DeVitto is a slow witted man in about his late thirties or early forties living with his mother who is always yelling at him and being generally disgusting. He is aspiring to be a writer and is taking Crystal's college class. When Crystal tries to explain motive to DeVitto by sending him to see a Hitchcock Film, he sets loose an imaginative and resourceful streak in DeVitto, who gets from the Hitchcock film (Strangers on a Train) that Crystal has offered to set up a reciprocal killing - Crystal would kill his mother if DeVitto killed his wife.

Without realizing what DeVitto is thinking and without having an opportunity to explain the concept of an alibi, Crystal's life is turned upside down as he is put on the run from the law and the only one he can turn to is DeVitto - who expects him to kill his mother.