Review of The Money Pit (1986) by Derek B — 29 Apr 2016

I honestly wish that Tom Hanks, an excellent dramatic actor in his own right, would go back, every once in a while, to comedy. There's few actors in this world that I believe are truly talented at both drama and comedy.

There's some actors that appear in funny movies, but they're funny because the script is funny, not because I necessarily think that they are great comedic actors. Tom Hanks is one of the few people that fits that category of great comedy and dramatic actor, because I think, from everything I've seen about the guy, that Tom is a legitimately funny dude.

And, part of his effectiveness as a comedic actor is because of that. It's not always mutually exclusive, but I think a big part of it actually being funny in real life. Then hopefully some of that might transfer itself to the film you're in.

And, while I thought Shelley Long was quite good here, I think it's Tom Hanks' unhinged and insane performance as the mansion he and his girlfriend bought for $200,000, a dead giveaway that something is wrong with it, starts to collapse unto itself.

Maybe not literally, but the plumbing doesn't work, neither does the electricity, there's holes in the floor and ceilings, the stairs fall apart, etc, etc. There's nothing really even that special about the movie, it's actually just a fairly straightforward slapstick comedy.

But, on top of that, you have Tom Hanks going insane and being hilarious and he, pretty much single-handedly, elevates a fairly basic script and turns it into a good movie. And I know that it seems like I'm completely discounting Shelley Long's contribution and that is my bad, because she is also funny here.

Her and Tom Hanks make a great comedic pairing, but it's clear, when compared to Hanks' performance, that she's the straight woman, as it were. The best straight man, that I've ever seen at least, will always remain Jason Bateman in Arrested Development.

And he's not even so much of a straight man since, while he does set-up his cast mates for jokes, he also gets a great amount of jokes himself. But that's irrelevant to this review, what matters is that Shelley Long is also good here and her contributions to making the film an enjoyable one should not be denied.

I do think that the film sort of loses some steam as it goes on. There's this big moment where Hanks' character falls into some paint and that, somehow, leads him to destroying all the scaffolding the workers are using to fix their house.

It's actually the biggest set-piece in the entire film and, to me, it just didn't work that well. It's not that it's poorly assembled, I just didn't think it was that funny. And that's where the film does start to lose some steam, so that's a shame.

There's certain moments of the film that are really funny, so I was hoping the film might retain some consistency, but it doesn't. And it's not like I think that hurts the movie a lot or it takes away from it, but it's just not as consistently entertaining during the last stretch as it is in other parts.

But that really shouldn't be a deterrent, I legitimately thought this movie was an enjoyable and Tom Hanks' performance is great, so I'd say that makes this worth watching. It's not a classic or anything, but it'll entertain you for its short, 90-minute running time.

I'd recommend it if it's ever on TV or if you have Netflix. Nothing that's really must-see, but a good little comedy here.