{"id":8549,"date":"2024-11-19T00:04:41","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T05:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=8549"},"modified":"2024-11-19T00:04:41","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T05:04:41","slug":"the-money-pit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/19\/the-money-pit\/","title":{"rendered":"The Money Pit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Money Pit <\/strong>(1986)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 91 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, slapstick violence, suggestive material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Richard Benjamin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: David Giler\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Michael Colombier\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Gordon Willis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 26, 1986 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Tom Hanks, Shelley Long, Alexander Godunov, Maureen Stapleton, Joe Mantegna, Philip Bosco, Josh Mostel, Yakov Smirnoff, Carmine Caridi, Brian Backer, Billy Lombardo, Mia Dillon, John van Dreelen, Douglass Watson, Tetchie Agbayani, Mary Louise Wilson, Irving Metzman, Henry Baker, Mike Starr, Frankie Faison, Jake Steinfeld, Nestor Serrano, Michael Jeter, Afemo Omilami, Bruno Iannone, Wendell Pierce.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $37.4M (US)\/$54.9M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ostensibly a remake of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House with Cary Grant and Myrna Loy, The Money Pit<\/strong> stars Tom Hanks and Shelley Long as a couple who buy a house for a song only to discover it\u2019s literally falling apart. Directed by Richard Benjamin (My Favorite Year), it\u2019s a funny movie that could have been better had it bothered to make something of the supporting characters, most of whom just drop by for a quick visit before moving on and out. Why bother introducing characters you don\u2019t plan to use later?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Attorney Walter Fielding (Hanks, Splash) is already in a deep financial hole when we first meet him. His father embezzled millions of dollars from their clients and fled the country leaving Walter Jr. to pay it all back. As if that wasn\u2019t enough, he and his classical violinist girlfriend Anna (Long, Cheers), who have been subletting her ex-husband Max\u2019s (Godunov, Die Hard) luxury apartment, have to find a new place now that he\u2019s returned a week early from his extended trip to Europe.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Walter\u2019s unscrupulous real estate agent friend (Mostel, Billy Madison) finds them a huge house that\u2019s going for only a fraction of its worth. The owner (Stapleton, Reds) needs to sell in a hurry due to legal issues involving her husband. In order to sweeten the deal, she throws in the furniture and her antique car. Believing they\u2019ve stumbled across the deal of a lifetime, Walter and Anna buy it. It isn\u2019t long before buyer\u2019s remorse sets in. Boy, does it ever!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Disaster waits in every nook and cranny staring with the stairway literally collapsing under Walter\u2019s feet. Everything goes haywire; the electricity, plumbing, gas, interior and exterior. This means putting up thousands more dollars for plumbers, contractors and permits. The crew promises the couple it\u2019ll take no more than two weeks to complete the work, but anyone who\u2019s ever dealt with contractors knows that\u2019s a big joke. As weeks become months, Walter and Ana\u2019s relationship begins to suffer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0While I laughed frequently, I won\u2019t sit here and claim The Money Pit<\/strong> is a comedy classic. It\u2019s not. I certainly didn\u2019t think so when I saw it at the movies with a friend on Good Friday \u201986 (March 28). I still don\u2019t. It is, however, better than most people give it credit for. The humor is mostly slapstick and sight gags. It has a few well-orchestrated comic set-pieces, but the topper has to be this sustained Rube Goldberg set-up in which a chain of disastrous events unfolds with meticulous precision. It starts with Hanks stepping where a plank used to be (up until a few seconds before) and goes on from there. Other amusing bits include a kitchen from Hell, a bathtub falling through the floor, a raccoon attack and a cooked turkey flying through the bathroom window. We know it\u2019s cooked because the little doohickey pops up.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The main problem with The Money Pit<\/strong> is how the screenplay short-changes interesting supporting characters by limiting their screen time. Take the contractor played by Joe Mantegna (Three Amigos), a slick lothario with perfect hair who starts hitting on Anna the second he crosses the threshold. Instead of sending him packing, Walter hires him because it was a hassle to even get him out there in the first place. He eagerly accepts Walter\u2019s check though. There\u2019s great comic potential here, but we never see him again. The same goes for Benny (Lombardo), a spoiled child star who needs a good swift kick in the derriere. He\u2019s Walter\u2019s top client and the one he goes to for a loan to buy the house. Their interaction culminates with Walter threatening not to like Benny anymore if he doesn\u2019t lend him the money. He too disappears after one solid scene. Don\u2019t even get me started on Cheap Girls, a rock group comprised of men in drag. I won\u2019t even tell you what (or should I say who) they want to change the band\u2019s name to. We don\u2019t see enough of these guys either.<\/p>\n

Hanks and Long exhibit okay chemistry as the couple not yet married because Anna\u2019s afraid to take the plunge again. Their story is a weak link, but it hurts less because they\u2019re both gifted comic actors. Hanks, while not in top form, has a handful of good moments like when he falls through the floor and gets pinned halfway down by the rug. He can\u2019t move; he can barely breathe. He\u2019s there for a long time. Long\u2019s character is annoyingly clueless at times, but her reactions in other scenes are priceless. Godunov shows his funny side here as an egotistical symphony conductor (the very one his ex-wife is in) willing to try anything to get back together with his ex.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As a director, Benjamin achieved comic perfection with My Favorite Year, still a riot four decades later. Peter O\u2019Toole delivers one of the best comic performances of all time. The Money Pit<\/strong> doesn\u2019t come close. It has its moments, but the overall effect is less than it should be. But even with its shortcomings, like its tendency to be heavy-handed at times, it\u2019s still entertaining. I\u2019m sure it has nothing on Mr. Blandings though.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Money Pit (1986)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 91 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, slapstick violence, suggestive material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Richard Benjamin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: David Giler\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Michael Colombier\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Gordon Willis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 26, 1986 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Tom Hanks, Shelley Long, Alexander Godunov, Maureen Stapleton, Joe Mantegna, Philip Bosco, Josh Mostel, Yakov Smirnoff, Carmine Caridi, Brian Backer, Billy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8827,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/The-Money-Pit-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8549"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8829,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8549\/revisions\/8829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}