Throw Momma from the Train (1987)

While I'm on a 'do I or don't I have a sense of humour' jag, I had another look at this piece of mayhem which I'd not seen for a while, and it's yet another black comedy that seems to work.  The first directorial effort from Danny De Vito, it pits him as a hopeless would-be writer taking a course from frustrated writer Billy Crystal, whose brilliant first novel was stolen by his ex-wife and who has had nothing but writer's block since.  After De Vito watches "Strangers on a Train" at Crystal's suggestion, he immediately assumes that he is meant to dispose of the latter's hated wife in exchange for Crystal ridding him of his overbearing mother.  She is an incredible grotesque, brilliantly embodied by a raucous Anne Ramsey, and one can just about sympathize with De Vito's quandary of dealing with a woman that he both loves and fears.  Of course nothing ever really goes as planned; when Crystal is sought for his wife's supposed murder, he hides out at De Vito's home and they gradually form an unlikely bond.  They also both eventually find unexpected success as writers, but that would be giving away the film's final joke.  One can have a good time with this movie without necessarily rolling in the aisles.