Directed by Richard Benjamin
In honor of my wife and I getting a house I bring you the forgotten classic The Money Pit. This is one of those movies that did pretty bad when it came out but now it is on TV all the time. These are the years that Tom Hanks made any movie that came in front of him. He got big off of Splash and then he made these stinkers until he made Big.
The Money Pit was directed by Richard Benjamin who went on to direct Milk Money and the Whoopi Goldberg classic Made in America. This guy can craft a well made story into a amazing feature film. The funny thing this was produced by Steven Spielberg the director of 1942.
The stars of The Pit are of course Tom Hanks mentioned above and the newly freed from Cheers, Shelly Long. When the makers of this got these two comedy partners together I bet they thought they hit comedy gold. They were dead wrong. This was Hanks pre-any Oscar and Shelly Long after she left one of the best sitcoms of all time. But they both went on to have stellar careers with Hanks winning back to back Oscars and Long went on to make The Brady Bunch movie and Hello Again.
There are some great cameos in The Pit and they include Maureen Stapleton from Johnny Dangerous, Joe Mantegna from Babies Day Out and the greatest cameo any '80's movie could ask for Yakov Smirnoff. That's right the famous Russian comedian and exile. I love America!
Let's get back on track...The Money Pit is about a couple who decide to buy a million dollar house to find out it is a run down fixer upper. Let the comedy ensue. The running joke is that everyone tells them that it will take two weeks. Low and behold it does not take two weeks. The young couple gets help from Long's ex husband played by Alexander Godunov the blond bad guy from Die Hard.
This is a classic '80's movie that I know a lot of people have seen. It is truly a forgotten classic. So check out The Money Pit today.
5/10
