SimonJack About the only thing this movie might be good for is as a training film for Hollywood stuntmen. It has more falls, spills, and hits than any film I can think of. That includes the Three Stooges films. Tom Hanks (or his double or doubles) has about as many falls as he has lines in this mishmash. On the score of falls to humorous lines, there's no contest. The script for this film is witless and humorless. Who knows what the makers were trying to do with "The Money Pit." I saw it as an attempt to make a new version of an older couple of films that were huge successes. Both were about city slickers who wanted to move into the country and they wind up getting stuck with huge fixer- uppers. The first of those was "George Washington Slept Here" of 1942 that starred Jack Benny and Ann Sheridan. The second was "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House" of 1948 that starred Cary Grant and Myrna Loy. Both of those films had crisp, sharp, witty and wonderfully funny dialog. It mixed very well with their occasional physical blunders or mishaps. But "The Money Pit" has none of that. Without a clever, funny script the repetitious falls, breaks and problems just get old very fast. Without the dialog, even the first few lack humor. This is a real turkey of a film. The only reason I give it three stars is for the brief but very good role of Estelle, played by Maureen Stapleton. Otherwise, it's a real bore.Here are the four brief pieces of dialog in the entire screenplay that I found funny. Max, "Can I speak frankly?" Anna, "Anything's possible."Estelle, as she lights a candelabra, "I'm trying to save a few bucks on the lights… for the blood-sucking lawyers."Estelle, "You know, you think you know somebody… after 25 years, and then one day, Israeli Intelligence comes to the door." Anna, "Israeli Intelligence?" Estelle, "It turns out Carlos was Hitler's pool man."Curly, "I'm from Shirk Brothers. Your name came up in the drawing. We work today." Walter, "That's good. Where is Brad?" Curly, "Oh, south of France I think." Walter, "Well, shouldn't he be here?" Curly, "Oh, Brad is the executive plumber. We do all the work."

Filipe Neto 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.

Sean Lamberger Every new homeowner's worst nightmare, as experienced by a pair of almost-average mid '80s DINKs. They sink a fortune into this place, a secluded estate that looks too good to be true and, of course, falls apart around them mere moments after key touches palm. Mid-lifers will find it easy to relate with this couple, played by Tom Hanks and Shelley Long, as they seem familiar and good-natured if a bit naive. Their ability to procure huge sums of money at the drop of a hat is a red flag, though, and the soapy complications of their personal lives actually serve to distance them from the audience. Hanks is a riot, especially when he descends into madness at the height of his misery, but Long may as well have been a wooden set piece. Try as he might, our leading man just can't draw a performance out of her and the duo's serious lack of chemistry is a problem. Funny in a Seinfeldian car crash, looking-through-our-fingers kind of way, the plot skips over the moment where its players' fates shift from disaster to redemption and the payoff, as a result, feels flat.

gjampol 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.