The Money Pit Review

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Just when you thought things couldn't possibly

get worse. The lunatic is back. Max, it's over

for us. Oh, why? Then just go to bed with me.

It's the comedy that throws everything at you,

including the kitchen sink. Little problem in

the kitchen. We're having some problems with

our plumbing. $5 ,000? That's just a deposit.

The comedy that gives new meaning to the word

housebroken. Don't worry about a thing! They

completely ripped up our house! The comedy that

brings down the house every time. The Money Pit.

Hello and welcome to MWIRE Movie Weekend Review

brought to you by the GeekCaster Radio Network.

I am one of your hosts, Steve Joe and Mike and

joining me is Steve Megatron. Hello. Hello. How

are you? Good. That's good, that's good. Yes,

it is September 1st. It's been a while since

episode 81 came out. We've just been really,

really busy and every movie that I have put in

episode 82's slot that's an 80's movie, either

I couldn't get to watch it at the time or...

Didn't have any way of watching it and finally

I said screw it I'm not gonna have one that is

based on 1982 I'm just gonna have one that I

absolutely love so that would be the money pit.

So what have you been up to sir? Um well Not

gonna get into it here, but uh the geek cast

radio Dot -com version 3 .0 go there check it

out Yes. Do it. Do it now. Do it. Do it now.

You can do it. You can do it right fucking now.

You can do it all night long. With the website.

Yes. So we are going to get into Just the Facts.

We'll be back after this. This is JT from Saskatoon

with today's Just the Facts. I'm going to be

telling you all about a classic movie from the

1980s. What movie am I talking about? It's The

Money Pit. The Money Pit was a comedy film released

in 1986 directed by Richard Benjamin and starred

Tom Hanks and Shelley Long, arguably two of the

biggest stars of the 1980s. The film follows

the misadventures of lawyer Walter Fielding,

played by Hanks, and Anna Crowley, played by

Long, two young professionals who are in love

and who are tossed out of their sublet apartment

by Anna's ex -husband, the real owner, after

he comes back from a trip to Europe. Now in need

of a home, they learn of a distressed sale mansion

owned by a woman named Estelle. Estelle arranges

to meet them at the house at night, where she

insists that the house be lit by candles so she

can save money for the goddamn blood -sucking

lawyers. Anna and Walter decide to buy the mansion

after hearing Estelle's story about how her husband

is being held by the Israelis under suspicion

of being a Nazi. They both get together half

of the one million dollars as a down payment.

Anna gets her half of the down payment by borrowing

from her ex Max, and Walter by borrowing from

one of his clients. But as soon as they take

possession of the house, it begins to fall apart.

The front door falls right out, frame and all,

the stairs fall apart, and a raccoon takes over

the house's dumb waiter. Walter and Anna hire

a couple of contractors, Art and Brad, who estimate

all the repairs will take two weeks. The front

door? Two weeks. The stairs, two weeks. Walter

becomes so frustrated by all the delays and the

rising cost of the repairs that he doves their

new home the money pit. Four months go by and

the repairs are almost complete. When Anna sells

some of the art she got in her divorce back to

Max, he takes her to dinner and gets her blackout

drunk so that when she wakes up in the morning

in his bed, Anna thinks she slept with him. Max

allows her to think this in order to get her

and Walter to split up. Walter becomes suspicious

and Anna confesses. The situation becomes so

tense in the house that Walter and Anna decide

they will sell the house after it's fixed and

split the profits. But true love wins out in

the end as Walter admits he still loves Anna

even if she did sleep with Max and Anna realizes

she didn't actually sleep with Max at all. Reunited

at last, Walter and Anna get married in front

of their finally completed home. The Money Pit

was not a huge success, generating mixed reviews

amongst the critics, with just under half of

them giving the film a positive review. Budgeted

for about $24 million, it made back just over

twice that amount at $54 .5 million. The film

is also notable for a few things. One is its

director. Richard Benjamin was well known for

a career full of comedic supporting roles and

had begun directing films in the early 1980s.

This film is his fourth such effort, coming out

shortly after he directed Clint Eastwood and

Burt Reynolds in City Heat. Another bit of trivia

is this is one of the earliest film roles for

actor Joe Montegna, who we all know as agent

David Rossi in Criminal Minds, as well as providing

the voice of gangster Fat Tony on The Simpsons.

And did you know that this film is actually a

remake? It's a remake of a 1948 Cary Grant film

entitled Mr. Blanding's Builds His Dream House.

It is the first of two such remakes. The first

being, of course, The Money Pit, the second being

2007's Are We Done Yet?, starring rapper and

actor Ice Cube. The Money Pit is another underrated

comedy film that came out of the 80s. Besides

being a remake, it's a solid film containing

some well -done practical special effects and

some great performances from two of the best

comedic actors of the decade. If you haven't

yet, I highly recommend checking it out. This

has been JT from Saskatoon with The Money Pit,

Just the Facts. Back to you guys. We are back,

and yeah, I had no idea this movie made that

much money. In 1980, like I knew movies back

then made money, but it's like you don't think

of the money pit making a total worldwide box

office amount at 54, almost $55 million. You

just don't think that. Well, it's not much for

nowadays, but. Well, no, but I mean, even even,

you know, Even the comedies of nowadays get more,

but what I'm saying is like $54 ,086 ,000, that

was a lot of money in 1986. The movie only had

a $10 ,000, let's see, what was its budget? I

think it was like, was it $10 ,000? I think,

I don't know. It's in Just the Facts, we already

talked about it. When did you first see this?

Probably about 10 years ago. We are considering

it came out the year you were burnt born the

year I was burned. Yeah, there you go What did

you think of it initially? It's such a humorous

movie that it's one that you can't really get

tired of Yeah, I completely agree Tom Hanks in

the 80s was a friggin genius I mean, you know,

I still love all his other films that he's done

past the 80s But I mean just wow that guy was

hilarious back then. Well, yeah nowadays most

of his movies are kind of like on the serious

side that and He seems kind of falling off the

deep end on some of his movie choices I'd liked

him better in his comedies his 80s stuff and

mid 90s. I think the role from castaway kind

of screwed him up But yeah, just and the funny

thing is outside of him and Shelly long I I Recognized

some of these people by seeing them But just

the only other one besides the two of them, Joe

Mantenga, or Mantega or whatever his name is.

He's the only other one's name that I actually

really recognize the entire rest of the cast.

I don't recognize any of these people. Just looking

at their names, but overall the movie had a great

cast to it. I mean all the different roles I

love I Love the scene when they're they're in

the process of building the house or Shelly Long's

in the bathroom and She opens the medicine cabinet

and it's the outside of the house and some black

guys there. He's like, what do you need? Alka

seltzer. Okay. Here you go. You're also just

to let you know you're out of tampons. Thank

you Yeah, I know there's just hilarious watching

that they're like, oh we're so helpful Yes, exactly.

Oh my god. This movie was just so hilarious Damn

it stupid phone This movie is just so, so hilarious.

What are your initial thoughts originally when

you first saw it? Well, I thought it was funny

how he thought he was getting the steel of a

house and everything just kind of started just

falling apart by, you know, touching it. Yeah.

Not even doing anything to it. I especially like

the scene where he sunk into the floor with a

rug. I love that scene. It like sucked him in

Yeah, that's so That's so funny Because he was

there for hours Did you know this was a remake?

Yep. Well, I didn't I didn't at the time but

with when I did the research for it Yeah, I found

out I was like, wow That's kind of weird And

I've never seen the the original Mr. What is

it? Mr. Blanding's builds his dream house. Yeah.

Yeah, Mr. Yeah, I've never seen that movie. Of

course, it came out in like 1949, so I wasn't

even born then. You weren't even thought of.

Funny. Very funny. What was your favorite scene

in this besides the the rug in the floor. Besides

the rug in the floor. I like where he was going

up the stairs and barely makes it to the top

and then she stands on his fingers and he falls

to the floor on top of what was left of the stairs.

Yeah, see I remember watching this movie like

when I was seven. but I never remembered what

happened to the old lady and her husband because

I knew like I Knew in the back of my mind something

happened him where he was in jail or people were

hunting him down But I originally thought that

the husband died and the old lady died as well.

No what happened? Right is they were scamming

other people in like Mexico and like some other

places real yeah yeah they they were they had

these houses that they said oh yes they're just

a steal they've been in my family for generations

yeah and they were just chewing people well you

know You know to skip right to the end here at

least you know his father Walter Fielding senior

at least he got screwed out of something because

he was always Embedded that was the other part

of the movie he embezzled all this money and

had to go to Rio his dad did And hide out in

Rio for months and months and months, which is

just hilarious And I love the content this house

would so make a really really good uh... homes

on homes are mike's uh... michael's home inspector

homes inspection or whatever else only god this

house is just and it looks great when we eat

the only is there it looks fine everything was

great and all the sudden you find always hidden

problems so all this all that the top falls through

the floor park from just putting water in it

He turns on the electrical or he turns on a light

switch and the fire starts up the wall through

the wiring Oh, yeah, that was hilarious Because

of the whole kitchen see that you know as soon

as it gets over to the stove the stove starts

coming on fire they actually left she left the

turkey in the stove from like a previous night

and So once the stove starts catching on fire

the door opens automatically and shoots the turkey

out the window into the bathroom window on the

other side of the house and it ends up in a bucket

next to the tub. Yeah. Torpedoes away. Oh, that's

so funny. Oh, I would kill somebody if they sold

me a house this shitty. Oh man, this is just

another one of those 80s classic comedies, and

it's just, it's so, so awesome. Oh man, I haven't

laughed like this in a long time, and you know,

I'm gonna throw him out of the bus, I don't give

a shit. Hajime Solo says, I have no sense of

humor with movies today. I'm sorry, this is 10

times funnier than any movie, any comedy currently

out right now. It just is at least to me it is

Yeah, I could I could say that to some extent

There are some movies that are are gonna blow

that out of the water though. Yeah, I mean, you

know, but just look at that, you know look at

the type of comedy this is like The one I can

compare it to it came out a few years ago. I

think it was Ben Stiller or I don't know Movie

called Duplex. You ever hear of Duplex? Yeah.

That's basically this, except there's a twist

in that where the scammers are the neighbors

or the landlords or something or other and they

just make it so impossible for the people to

live there. It's not the houses falling down,

but it's just, you know, it's a bad neighbor

movie basically. And I always thought of that

being kind of like this movie and it's just like,

wow. And I love the contractors. How long is

it going to take? Two weeks. Yeah, everything

is two weeks. Yeah, everything is going to take

two weeks. And it had to have been like, what,

a year or so that it has actually got done. And

the final product, we didn't see all of it, obviously,

because they have certain sets for everything.

But that foyer in those two front living rooms

or dining rooms or whatever the hell they were.

Looked amazing after it was all said and done.

Wow. Oh Man this movie is just so awesome What

else do you want to say about the money pit um

They haven't really done anything similar to

this. I mean they kind of did it in the sense

of like the One of the Are we there yet type

movies? Yeah, but it wasn't nearly as good as

this right because you have that dynamic of Tom

Hanks and He's just Nobody can pull off what

he does in these films especially his 80s personas.

Oh, yeah, and It's just it's it's funny just

to watch him. I mean his facial expressions and

just how he acts like Like I said, you know before

with him falling through the floor that was just

It was hilarious Well, so hilarious with that

is they actually showed it when she finally got

home She was looking for him and she was downstairs

and he was upstairs they actually showed it Where

the carpet where his legs were? And then she

tried to pull him up, but all it did was loosen

him in the hole and he fell through the floor

But I do like how they actually fixed his house

by the end oh Yeah, yeah, I mean the house is

beautiful at the end of it It just was it's like

Is like one of those dream houses and and and

like we said, you know, it's based I did it's

a remake of that other movie It's just This is

another one of those for me. This is not one

of those classic 80s movies that I could watch

Anytime. I haven't seen this movie It's been

maybe 15 years since I've seen it, but I still

absolutely love it. It's just so awesome. The

chemistry between Tom Hanks and Shilly Long is

just great. The only shining point for Max is

when he was giving advice to Walter. Other than

that, Max, I didn't like him at all. Yeah, I

wanted to strangle the chick in the in the orchestra

like when at the beginning of the movie And they're

like oh, he's coming back. It's him. He's coming

back, but oh my god the chick that was just wigging

out To find out that Max was coming back. It

was like oh my god. I wanted to strangle the

hell out of her I think I blanked that out It's

so funny. Yeah, I probably did myself as well

What else do we want to say about this one? Because

it I mean it's pretty much you you have to watch

this movie to really get it but I mean it was

it was a really really enjoyable movie and it

wasn't something like it wasn't something that

It isn't a movie that like some movies just don't

capture my attention. It's kind of like Holy

crap. I remember seeing this and that's kind

of the point of them wire is that we don't just

do like we use the special episodes for you know

newer movies, but the point of the podcast is

going back and You know watching the old ones

that we haven't seen in a long time and remembering

how good or how bad they are Yeah So, I think

that's gonna do it for us. Actually, I do have

a little bit of trivia. The band White Lion performs

twice in this movie with the lineup that was

pre their debut album. The bass player joined

Black Sabbath between this movie and White Lion's

first album. For the scene with the bathtub falling

two floors down after being filled with water,

Tom Hanks does an obnoxious laugh. This clip

of him laughing is commonly used for a universal

backlot tour when the tour guides joke with the

visitors. Oh, that laugh. Actually, I think I

actually make that laugh because there's some

times where I just, I wanna laugh, but I can't

and ends up going, ugh, and I've done that so

many times, because I just can't get the laughter

out. Screenwriters Lowell Gans and Babalu Mandel

wrote an uncredited draft of the script, but

in the film's original trailer, they were credited

along with the film's writer David Giller. The

film was intended to be one of Universal's tentpole

movies for Christmas 1985, but the film was pushed

back to March of 86. Yes, and now we're gonna

go to no really quick it is on DVD I'm not exactly

sure at this time. I'm you know, it's on single

disc DVD I don't know if there's ever been an

anniversary film of it made at this point in

time Again, that's probably all in the just the

facts segment. I think we had already covered

that What are your what's your final verdict

on the money pit? I'd give it a five out of five

a must -own A tan, a fucking tan! I knew that

was coming for some reason. I always use that,

you know that. Billy Bob was awesome in varsity

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