The Money Pit

Some people call this Tom Hanks' worst film. Nope, it was just completely ridiculous to the point that the viewer is supposed to know this kind of thing could never happen on this scale and just laugh, because we've all had these kinds of things happen on a much smaller scale.

Tom Hanks and Shelley Long play a couple who have recently fallen in love and have been living in her ex-husband's New York City apartment and not thinking ahead. But then one day the ex-husband, Max (Alexander Godunov), returns and they have to leave.

In a hurry to find a place to live, they buy a house for a song that looks beautiful through a disreputable agent. Although they looked at the house - never had an actual inspection mind you - and everything looked okay, things begin to fall apart the day that they move in. The front door and its entire frame fall off its hinges, the bad step on the staircase ends up with the entire stairway crashing to the floor, the bathtub falls through the floor just by filling it with water, and so on. The problems and their cost mount to the point of being way past ridiculous, and as goes the house so goes the relationship between Hanks and Long. To make matters worse, Max really wants his ex-wife back and is taking advantage of her vulnerability and deteriorating mental state.

The fact is, nobody in this film but Hanks and Long play remotely likable characters. Everybody else is at best selfish and vain or incompetent, at worse dishonest, including Hanks' dad who ran off and left with his law firm's money so he could marry a girl about one third his age, leaving Hanks' character holding the bag.

How will this all work out? Watch and find out. This was the only pairing of Shelley Long with Tom Hanks, and it is rather bittersweet in a kind of "A Star is Born" way, looking back. Tom Hanks had not been able to break out of farce like comedy roles such as this yet will end up getting back to back Best Actor Oscars. Long thought that this role was a stepping stone to better things after she decided to leave Cheers the following year, but she never got anything that really rose above this kind of role and was pretty much out of the movies by 1992.

Highlights of the film for me - Gudonov's monologue to Hanks on the perks of being shallow and self-centered, a mouse-trap like chain reaction joke of physical comedy involving Hanks that has to be seen to be believed, and Philip Bosco as the genial and useless supervisor of the construction crew who is all smiles and has only one answer to how long it will take to fix the house - "two weeks".

One of the things that makes this movie so enjoyable is that millions of Americans can easily empathize and draw upon their own experiences with the travails of fixing up a dilapidated house.

The plot is a familiar one and follows in the footsteps (which usually collapse) of such classic films as "George Washington Slept Here," "The Egg and I" and "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House."

Shelley Long and Tom Hanks seem evenly matched as the tormented couple who suffer almost every wacky indignity and calamity imaginable. Tom Hanks has a flair for physical comedy, which he rarely got the chance to exploit in his later films. Unfortunately, except for Philip Bosco and Maureen Stapleton, the supporting players in "The Money Pit" are not in the same league as the actors who added so much flavor to films in the old studio days.

Indeed, as a classic movie buff, I find today's crop of character actors pallid in comparison with their counterparts of more than 50 years ago.

Who can forget Percy Kilbride and Hattie McDaniel as Mr. Kimber and Hester the maid in "George Washington," and Harry Shannon As Mr. Tesander, the well digger, in "Blandings"? Don't forget Donald MacBride and the coupling of Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride as Ma and Pa Kettle in "The Egg." We'll never see the likes of them again.

Still, "The Money Pit" is all good fun and very entertaining.

It continually amazes me that Tom hanks will go down as one of the best dramatic actors of our generation and little will be spoken of how good a physical comedian he was before "Philadelphia" changed his career. Hanks made a string of movies in the 80s relying on his physical comedy ability, most notable "Big", "the burbs", "dragnet", "turner & hooch" etc. But I think that with the POSSIBLE exception of "Big" - "The Money Pit" is his best. Some of the scenes involving Hanks in this movie made me laugh so hard I couldn't breathe. This movie is intended to be a farce and it succeeds totally. The rest of the cast is not very strong - I have never, and I assume never will be, a Shelley Long fan - she doesn't do anything but provide a sounding board for Hanks anyway. But then again, she really doesn't need to.

This movie is definitely worth taking a look at if you haven't seen it - the first time you watch it, it is genuinely hilarious. I just watched it again after about three years without seeing it and found it to still hold up. The scene when the chimney falls apart is my favorite. I wish hanks would do another comedy, but he's all serious now. oh well.

Tom Hanks and his girlfriend are desperatedly in need of money and a new house. They find a beautiful house at a very low price, which seems too good be true. And it is. Hilarious disasters will follow, when they disover how disastrous their new home really is.

I love Tom Hanks ( and also Shelley Long from Cheers) in their younger days. Hanks was an unguided comedy projectile back then, with wild antics that are just to die for so funny.

Just a lovely comedy about all the disasters that can go wrong and therefore WILL GO WRONG when starting a renovation! The jokes still stand strong after many decades. Must see for Tom Hanks fans. Suited for young and old.

I know, the critics ripped at "The Money Pit" when it got released. They apparently didn't realize that it wasn't pretending to be a masterpiece; it was a big excuse to be funny, and they succeed. Some of the gags her seem to forecast the equally funny "Mousehunt". Personally, I think that Tom Hanks needs to act in some more comedies, and Shelley Long needs to get more roles in movies. My favorite scene? Well, I get the giggles whenever I think of the whole chain reaction. Just the kinds of things about which anyone should worry when moving into a new house (although my family didn't have such experiences when we moved into our house).

All in all, it shows that Richard Benjamin is as great a director as he is an actor. My generation ought to give him the recognition that my parents' generation gave him. Also starring Alexander Godunov (one of the Amish guys in "Witness"), Maureen Stapleton, Joe Mantegna and Josh Mostel.