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The Money Pit (1986) was very early on in tom hanks's Hollywood career, and I'm so glad he decided to do it! Him and Shelley Long that is. I mean this is just a classic to me. From both Long and Hanks's very talented comedic performances to the funny script and some of the best physical comedy I've ever seen done. Tom hanks can play very serious roles in dramatic movies, exhibit A: Forrest Gump, and he is very good at it, but he also is very gifted comedic actor too. He has a lot of great moments that he just delivers the lines in such a way where it works and will have you busting out laughing. Shelley Long is good here, has some very funny scenes, she has some humor that's not very obvious such as slapstick, but it works very well and the two of them have very natural romantic on screen chemistry. They are believable as a couple. I hate it when filmmakers cast romantic leads that have absolutely zero natural chemistry between them. It just makes for awkward interaction and a poor couple. Tbankfully they avoided that with this movie. The movie has some quality physical slapstick style comedy while the house is being worked on, and it for the most part works. The movie isn't the best comedy or 80's movie you'll ever see, but it's cute at times, very funny, and well acted. I suggest it.

Richard Benjamin, actor (Westworld, 1973) goes director, directed this entertaining film fun about a down-on-his-luck couple desperately fighting for the survival of their relationship while the roof over their heads - and their bank account - slip into an increasingly precarious predicament.

With Tom Hanks and Shelley Long prominently cast, both have convincing chemistry in this classic piece reminiscent of comedies of the '50s and '60s.

The humor comes more with slapstick interludes and is very physical. The film is very entertaining and diverting.

A compelling good-mood film with a young Tom Hanks.

It really surprised me to see this movie get such a critical beating when it was released. I was even *more* surprised at how good it is.

Even before I popped this badboy in, I knew pretty much what to expect from it, and I left satisfied. Tom Hanks and Shelley Long are delightful; so is Alexander Godunov, he plays the vapid eurotrash so well in this.

It's a lighthearted '80s comedy, and when disaster isn't striking, it makes with the witty banter between spouses. It's just likable.

To that end, Hanks is in his comedic prime here, and man, he is on fire. He makes slapstick look easy but it's also a lot of fun watching him unravel in his harried state. That barking seal laugh he does after the bathtub plummets had me dying. His best is still "A League of Their Own", but this is a close second.

It's nice that there's a happy ending to this, what with the relationship drama. But we all came here to see the house try to kill itself from within, and I say mission accomplished.

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.

The Money Pit is directed by Richard Benjamin and written by David Giler. It stars Tom Hanks, Shelley Long, Alexander Godunov and Maureen Stapleton. Music is by Michael Colombier and cinematography by Gordon Willis. Plot finds Hanks and Long as a young couple who buy what they think is their dream house, only to find the house falling apart around them.

Mozart is dead, his troubles are over.

He went on to be a big mover in the acting world did Tom Hanks, so much so it's always a little weird revisiting his comedy output in the 1980s because he's a vastly different actor now. Yet for many of us, that decade holds many treasures, where nostalgic fever takes a hold and a warm glow does come with watching the young Hanks bound about with comedic glee. The Money Pit doesn't have the cult worship of Splash or the internet respect of Big, yet it's a wonderfully funny picture that finds Hanks on optimum energised form. The plot might be thin and Long kind of gets pushed to one side, but this has much to enjoy with a bottle of vino and snacks. That is, of course, if you don't mind laughing at the misfortune of new home owners?! I am sinking fast into the money pit.

A number of sequences are pure farce, but in the good way, stairs collapse, as does the chimney, doors, floors and a leaking roof bring the mirth, as does a laugh out loud bath moment. It sounds a little chaotic, and it is at times, but the screenplay allows Hanks & Long, and the wonderful Godunov, time to breath life into the characters. There's a lovely romance at the core of the story, one that inevitably will be tested by the chaos of the house renovations and Godunov's third party ex. They are a very likable couple and easy to root for. Helps that Hanks is full of effervescent boyishness and Long is so homely and pretty, the latter of which I don't think has ever looked better than during a red dress sequence here.

If the foundation is OK? Then everything else can be fixed.

It doesn't have any surprises in store, it goes exactly where you expect it too, which naturally renders the final third as being all about the sentiment and the message. With the comedy gone, picture struggles a touch to put the final coat of paint on the project. But it's nicely underplayed by the actors and really this is about love triumphant against adversity. With the laughs that came previously more than making this a blues lifter for the nostalgic amongst us. 7.5/10