The Money Pit (1986)

The Worst Film Ever

Fresh and Exciting

A Disappointing Continuation

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It's not often that a remake manages to be even better than a classic original, but this reworking of Mr. Blandings for a more modern context definitely hits the nail on the head. Tom Hanks is hilarious in that underplayed TH manner and his relationship with Shelley Long, as they chase their dreams, is delightful. As an added bonus, it also provides a useful list of things to beware of when buying a house. This is one of my favourite films and I strongly recommend it.

When a couple stupidly buy the ultimate fixer upper, they are caught in a house of horror. This could have been a truly funny movie, but all it is is one pitfall after another. We squirm as the poor people, who don't deserve this hell, fall through floors, watch stairways tumble, get hit by debris, and on and on. I watched this on a plane to Thailand, hoping it would keep me awake for a time so I could sleep later. I soon was snoring. But because in those day they kept showing the same movie over and over, I finally got to mercifully see the whole thing. There is nothing wrong with Tom Hanks and Shelley Long. They just signed up for a clunker. The special effects are pretty good. I'm sure there were some find creative sessions to decide what to do to these poor people.

"The Money Pit" is an underrated, romantic, slapstick comedy. A young couple Tom Hanks and Shelley Long are very much in love with each other and want to buy the home of their dreams. They finally find a large house going cheap and move in; but it's not long before one hilarious disaster after another happens. The house is falling apart along with their bank account and they get deeper and deeper into debt and their relationship starts to fall apart. There are some really great, very colorful characters interspersed throughout, resulting in some great comedy. There's also a lot of slap-stick which even if it's not your usual cup-of-tea would be hard not to enjoy.In this movie, the script writer and set technicians are king. These professionals ought to have a showcase for their talents to be spotlighted from time to time, and they sure made the most of the opportunity with this one. The calamitous frailty of this ostensibly beautiful house renders so many brilliantly done scenes that this movie still makes me laugh out loud after seeing it several times. A joke loses all its power to amuse after the surprise of the punch-line is lost, but these sight-gags are so funny I can break out laughing while driving down a lonely highway just thinking about them. Some movies lose their effectiveness because the makers get confused and try to do too may things - the message gets muddled. The best movies exhibit no such confusion and tell their story with minimal distraction. This movie is about this house, and what these artists do with this prop is brilliantly and enduringly funny.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

This film tells the story of a young couple and a house. Walter is a failed showbiz agent who kills himself to work and pay the debts left by his father, who fled with the money of brokered artists. Anna is violinist and member of the orchestra directed by her ex- husband, Max, a conductor with a blonde hair only smaller than your ego. Forced to move from the apartment where they live and faced with the real estate jungle of Manhattan, they end up buying a small mansion in a deal that seems like a dream come true... a dream that will crumbling slowly, as the weaknesses of the old house are becoming evident, for madness of the two lovebirds and delight of the audience.Walter is represented by a young Tom Hanks, in a stage of his career where he made several comedies. Despite the youth, we can recognize many of the characteristics of this actor which we can see, more developed, in films of his maturity. Anna is embodied by Shelley Long, a actress particularly skilled in comedies. Joe Mantegna also has a role as Art Shirk, a quite wealthy plumber. The film was directed by David Giler and Steven Spielberg, and is the beginning of a good collaboration between Spielberg and Hanks, who will result, in the future, in some successes like "Saving Private Ryan". The jokes of context and situation prevails, as well as the hilarious grimacing of the two main actors and a fabulous (and famous) Hanks laugh, well-remembered by those who like this film. In the midst of so many good points, just one less good note: I believe the script superficially explores the comic opportunities brought about by love triangle Walter-Anna-Maestro, introducing elements of conflict very late and giving them lightly solutions at the end of the film.In the beginning, this comedy doesn't seem to have anything new or special. It's just a comedy of the eighties, a decade when this genre was very exploited and, to be honest, battered by several absolutely disastrous films. But is exactly by that, partially, why "The Money Pit" deserves to be noteworthy: because it's so good and works so well. This film, a remake of a forties comedy, is a guarantee of laughter, no matter we are watching for the first time or the hundredth time in our lives. It's a film that does't tire to review over and over again. It is always funny.