Danny DeVito
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Strangers on a Train (1951)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
influenced Throw Momma from the Train (1987)
Plot
Owen, whose interpretation of Strangers on a Train leads him to believe that Larry would like him to kill his wife in return for the prof's disposal of Owen's obscenely senile, tyrannical mother, turns Larry's life (already a mess: ever since his wife stole his first novel, he's suffered from writer's block) into an absolute nightmare.
He not only borrows the plot device from Alfred Hitchcock's " Strangers on a Train " for his new comedy, "Throw Momma from the Train," but he even has one of his characters actually go to the movies to study the relevant scene from Hitchcock's 1951 classic.
Danny DeVito, the Rumpelstiltskin of American comedy, takes a tumble in his directorial debut with an embarrassing remake of Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train."
As written by Stu Silver (and directed by DeVito), "Momma" is a goofy tribute to Alfred Hitchcock's 1951 "Strangers on a Train" -- the classic in which Robert Walker involves Farley Granger in a "criss-cross" murder.
Loosely inspired by Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train, Throw Momma From The Train follows Billy Crystal's Larry, a struggling writer/English teacher, as he's embroiled in a scheme to knock off the abusive mother (Anne Ramsey) of one of his students (Danny DeVito's Owen).
The story is certainly a classic one (even serving as the premise for Danny DeVito’s Throw Momma from the Train (1987)).
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
Directed by Doug Liman
influenced by The War of the Roses (1989)
Themes Visuals Plot
And at this point, it'd be easy to call this a cop-out in terms of theme -- if this is a satirical black comedy about marital frustrations, it sure seems optmistic (unlike, say, The War of the Roses or even American Beauty, which lead themselves to destructive but effective conclusions).
Director Doug Liman, who showed a flair for combining action, drama, and metaphor in The Bourne Identity, cant find the note of irony that worked for Prizzis Honor and The War of the Roses, so he settles for the high-tech gimmickry of True Lies.
And then, in a quite violent about-face, we’re meant to find it humorous when they turn homicidal on each other (it’s not unheard of – Danny DeVito’s The War of the Roses managed the trick quite nicely).
The ensuing battle of the A-list celebrities has some of the harshness of The War of the Roses in which Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner stuck it to one another with true venom.
From there, the film turns into a more action-filled, nastier but ultimately sexier spin on both "The War of the Roses" and "Prizzi's Honor."
That's where Mr. and Mrs. Smith finds its footing as an explosive, guns-blazing variation of The War of the Roses.
Pacino doesn’t achieve the same kind of physical verisimilitude Jack Nicholson had in 1992’s “Hoffa,” but he creates a memorable portrayal of a charismatic, short-fused, two-fisted union leader whose refusal to quit or back down fueled his rise to power — and led to his downfall.
That Boston film, “The Departed” (2006), played with the persona of Whitey, with Jack Nicholson (who played Hoffa in Danny DeVito’s 1992 take, “Hoffa”) painting him as, well, Jack Nicholson (i.e., not very Boston or Bulger-esque).
It’s instructive to compare Pacino’s Hoffa with Jack Nicholson’s, in the underrated “Hoffa” (1992).
Danny DeVito’s Hoffa had Jack Nicholson playing the Teamster boss as something of a brutal thug, but Pacino manages to make Hoffa a surprisingly charming guy, almost grandfatherly.
Além disso, Pacino torna Hoffa uma figura calorosa e que desperta o afeto do espectador, o que adiciona um elemento dramático importante à narrativa (algo que faltava, por exemplo, à versão de Jack Nicholson no mediano Hoffa ).
He’s more subtle than Jack Nicholson’s incendiary version in Danny DeVito’s underrated 1992 “Hoffa.”
Horrible Bosses (2011)
Directed by Seth Gordon
influenced by Throw Momma from the Train (1987), The War of the Roses (1989)
Plot
"Horrible Bosses" follows the precedent set by such earlier crime-gone-awry comedies as "Ruthless People" (1986), "Throw Momma from the Train" (1987) and "Bottle Rocket" (1996) with gut-busting gusto.
What hurts is that it never takes off into the wild ozone (like, say, Throw Momma from the Train or The War of the Roses � Danny DeVito really should�ve directed this), nor is it grounded in much reality � it�s a middle-of-the-road farce, too timid to risk losing the audience by making the working lads cold-blooded either in murder or manipulation.
But soon they’re hiring a “murder consultant” (Jamie Foxx) and name-checking Alfred Hitchcock’s “Strangers on a Train” (1951) and the Danny DeVito movie “Throw Momma from the Train” (1987) as they plot the demise of their employers.
Like Danny DeVito’s soft but likable satire Throw Momma From the Train—which the movie is generous enough to name-check— Horrible Bosses doesn’t sink its teeth very deeply into its Hitchcockian premise.
His suggestion: Emulate Alfred Hitchcocks Strangers on a Train (or, as one character amusingly notes, Danny DeVitos Throw Momma from the Train) by having each fellow bump off anothers boss, thereby reducing the risk of getting caught.
And Day — whose lines tend to come out in a breathy, spacy squeak — fills in the gaps with his doofy malapropisms: When one of the guys mentions Strangers on a Train, Day thinks he’s talking about “that Danny De Vito movie,” Throw Momma from the Train.
Pee Wee Herman and Tracey Walter ("Repo Man") are truly wasted as a pair of FBI agents -- inspired casting cast adrift.
From her numerous kills throughout to a tremendously entertaining face-off against Hilary Swank that reminds of The War of the Roses (1989) even as it feels ultimately fresh, she is a force to be reckoned with.
Its dark themes—including a marriage battle that makes The War of the Roses seem like a tickle fight—could prove too heavy for some mystery fans, and the subversive handling of satirical elements might be mistaken for schlockiness.
Ostensibly a scathing examination of how a marriage can quickly devolve from wedded bliss to homicidal tendencies (“The War of the Roses” as scripted by Hannibal Lecter comes to mind), Fincher and Flynn manage to also work in an equally acidic satirisation of the frothing media frenzy that often gravitates to these sort of cases in real life, primarily via Missi Pyle as a cable news talking head in the Nancy Grace mold.
It makes “The War of the Roses” seem warm and fuzzy.
Gone Girl may come advertised as a thriller, but that’s Fincher being a trickster—he’s gone and made the curtest, nastiest, most acidic black comedy about the marital accord since The War of the Roses.
While many of the movies made of his work - The Witches, Matilda, Willy Wonka/Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - have been well received fan favorites, few have capture the underlying mischievousness of his motives…until now.
Roald Dahl's writing for children has only a moderate record of reaching the screen with its naughtiness intact - a pair of not-bad stabs at Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a middling Matilda and Nicolas Roeg's paralysingly scary take on The Witches are among near-successes to date.
I'd place this alongside Matilda as a motion picture that "gets" the book and transforms its essence to the screen.
The author of such eccentric stuff as "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Witches" and "Matilda" would have appreciated its oddball tone, as well as its mixing in of darkness, even brutality, in a children's story.
One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)
Directed by Clyde Geronimi
influenced Matilda (1996)
Characters
She is compared to Cruela DeVille in "101 Dalmatians."
That the picture also happens to be the most diabolically entertaining black comedy since The War of the Roses is just the icing on the cake.
Marriage Story (2019)
Directed by Noah Baumbach
influenced by The War of the Roses (1989)
Plot Themes
There’s nothing particularly new within the canon of “broken relationship features” here ( Kramer vs. Kramer , The War of the Roses , and The Story of Us have all tackled the pain and sometimes absurd nature of divorce in their own manner) but writer/director Noah Baumbach ( The Squid and the Whale , Frances Ha ), bringing his staple brand of talky-intelligence and humour to proceedings, somehow exerts a sense of freshness.
Other American films about divorce (a mini-canon that includes Kramer vs. Kramer , Shoot the Moon and, yes, The War of the Roses ) have portrayed this phenomenon — the legal process driving and shaping the couple’s feelings rather than vice versa — but none with the force and clarity of this one.
Like Matilda or James and the Giant Peach, Death of a Unicorn chronicles a young person inhabiting a world of grotesque adults who are inevitably no match for the fantastical.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón
influenced by Death to Smoochy (2002)
Themes
Stephen King, that is: Harry is full of rage and verging on relishing too much the potent occult power he commands, and the explosion of furious magic he aims at Uncle Vernon's (Richard Griffiths: Sleepy Hollow ) sister, Aunt Marge (Pam Ferris: Death to Smoochy ), reminded me of Carrie at the prom, finally bullied and abused beyond a breaking point.
Wide-eyed, sweet-faced Mara Wilson ("Miracle on 34th Street") is perfect as the precocious Matilda Wormwood, a brilliant, eager-to-learn child who must face the harsh reality of uncaring and loutish parents--wonderfully overplayed by actor/producer/director Danny DeVito and "Sunset Park's" Rhea Perlman.
Like The War of the Roses (1989), this movie is darkly funny so that we can laugh along at the rancid underbelly of America lest we succumb.
Matilda-like powers…
Douglas could be just as famous making the same post–Wall Street movies: Fatal Attraction, The War of the Roses, Basic Instinct, Falling Down, Disclosure, The Game, A Perfect Murder, Traffic.
Her grandfather, the Broadway and Hollywood legend Elia Kazan, directed A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront; her parents are screenwriters Robin Swicord (Little Women, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and Nicholas Kazan (Frances, Patty Hearst, Reversal of Fortune, Matilda).
Mara Wilson, who lit up the screen as Robin Williams' daughter in Mrs. Doubtfire, and captured the Natalie Wood role in the remake of A Miracle on 34th Street, is enchanting without being either sickeningly adorable or unbearably irritating.
Embeth Davidtz ("Schindler's List") is all glowing purity as Miss Honey, Matilda's kind and encouraging teacher with a secret past.
Doubtfire) and the relationship Matilda establishes with her fragile teacher Miss Honey (Schindler's List's Embeth Davidtz, glowing from within).
There, Matilda discovers friends, a mentor (Embeth Davidtz, from "Schindler's List," playing a sympathetic first-grade teacher) and telekinetic powers.