← Back to Reviews
in
The Money Pit
(directed by Richard Benjamin, 1986)
The Money Pit stars Tom Hanks and Shelley Long as a soon-to-be married couple that buys a big house from a funny old lady at a very good price. The problem is the house is a lemon -- in this little slapstick comedy, we're treated to a bunch of scenes in which Tom and Shelley discover something horrendous happening to their house. They should have given up on the thing the first day they moved in -- when the whole god damn spiraling staircase collapsed!
Although the film has some pretty funny moments, the majority of the picture is as dilapidated as the house Tom and Shelley move into. This was a very boring 90 minute film with one central joke that got old very early. It actually surprised me how fast they started up with the house falling apart. When I read the description of this movie on TV -- can't On Demand cable offer better free movies?! -- I thought I'd give it a try because I like Tom Hanks and I even like Shelley Long from the Brady Bunch movies she did. I figured they'd start off with small bad things happening to the house, leading up to bigger and funnier nightmarish occurances. No. As I said -- their spiraling staircase competely collapsed on day one. They had to use a LADDER to get upstairs. Eventually, everything falls apart. The kitchen is demolished. The bathtub falls through the ceiling and explodes into pieces. The front door falls off. It rains and water leaks through the roof everywhere. MOST OF THIS HAPPENS IN THE FIRST COUPLE OF DAYS THEY MOVE IN!
Steven Spielberg produced this movie, so I thought after seeing his name in the credits that it wasn't gonna be a bad time at all. Well, lemme tell ya, E.T. is rolling in his spaceship over this. I know that doesn't make sense, but I'm sure it's happening.
One of the thing this movie does a lot is introduce us to a lot of bizarre, wacky characters. That's not a bad thing. I've seen lots of good movies with good wacky characters. The sad thing is there's really only one wacky character that's good enough -- and she stole the show, too -- Maureen Stapleton as Estelle, the old woman Tom and Shelley buy the house from. What a great character. Too bad she's in a horrible movie. Other wacky characters - the majority of them - are construction workers that come to fix up the house, which takes up the majority of the movie. Most of them are stereotypes and boring ones at that. There was a crossdressing band that called themselves "Cheap Girls" and they did have a funny moment, but only one.
Shelley Long's character has an ex-husband, some Russian guy who conducts the orchestra she's in and is apparently very famous, and this plays along with the movie's theme about sturdy foundations and sticking together or something. I dunno. It may have been a nice message overall -- you'll understand if you see it -- but it's not really worth the time and effort getting it from this movie. If you enjoy sight gags and relationship drama, this is your movie.
Final word: Don't fall into The Money Pit. Yawnfestation.
(directed by Richard Benjamin, 1986)
The Money Pit stars Tom Hanks and Shelley Long as a soon-to-be married couple that buys a big house from a funny old lady at a very good price. The problem is the house is a lemon -- in this little slapstick comedy, we're treated to a bunch of scenes in which Tom and Shelley discover something horrendous happening to their house. They should have given up on the thing the first day they moved in -- when the whole god damn spiraling staircase collapsed!
Although the film has some pretty funny moments, the majority of the picture is as dilapidated as the house Tom and Shelley move into. This was a very boring 90 minute film with one central joke that got old very early. It actually surprised me how fast they started up with the house falling apart. When I read the description of this movie on TV -- can't On Demand cable offer better free movies?! -- I thought I'd give it a try because I like Tom Hanks and I even like Shelley Long from the Brady Bunch movies she did. I figured they'd start off with small bad things happening to the house, leading up to bigger and funnier nightmarish occurances. No. As I said -- their spiraling staircase competely collapsed on day one. They had to use a LADDER to get upstairs. Eventually, everything falls apart. The kitchen is demolished. The bathtub falls through the ceiling and explodes into pieces. The front door falls off. It rains and water leaks through the roof everywhere. MOST OF THIS HAPPENS IN THE FIRST COUPLE OF DAYS THEY MOVE IN!
Steven Spielberg produced this movie, so I thought after seeing his name in the credits that it wasn't gonna be a bad time at all. Well, lemme tell ya, E.T. is rolling in his spaceship over this. I know that doesn't make sense, but I'm sure it's happening.
One of the thing this movie does a lot is introduce us to a lot of bizarre, wacky characters. That's not a bad thing. I've seen lots of good movies with good wacky characters. The sad thing is there's really only one wacky character that's good enough -- and she stole the show, too -- Maureen Stapleton as Estelle, the old woman Tom and Shelley buy the house from. What a great character. Too bad she's in a horrible movie. Other wacky characters - the majority of them - are construction workers that come to fix up the house, which takes up the majority of the movie. Most of them are stereotypes and boring ones at that. There was a crossdressing band that called themselves "Cheap Girls" and they did have a funny moment, but only one.
Shelley Long's character has an ex-husband, some Russian guy who conducts the orchestra she's in and is apparently very famous, and this plays along with the movie's theme about sturdy foundations and sticking together or something. I dunno. It may have been a nice message overall -- you'll understand if you see it -- but it's not really worth the time and effort getting it from this movie. If you enjoy sight gags and relationship drama, this is your movie.
Final word: Don't fall into The Money Pit. Yawnfestation.