This film is one that I have seen many times. If you were alive back in the mid to late 80's and were old enough to "get it" from comedy at the time you would realize that Hanks used to nearly exclusively do comedy films. I don't know when he transitioned to big-budget dramas but this was his forte back in the 80's and "The Money Pit" is one of his better ones.
By simply looking at this movie poster you can tell that it is from a long time ago. We didn't have much in the way of computer technology back in 1986 so we did the best we could.
The plot in this film is pretty simple. Walter Fielding (Hanks) and Anna Crowley (Shelly Long) are an in-love couple who decide to get involved in a purchase of a wonderful looking house that they acquired at a very low price because it is a "distress sale." The place looks like the deal of a lifetime but then when they move in they realize that there are tons of things wrong with it.
Things begin to immediately and disastrously fall apart including the front door coming off the side of the building and the ornate staircase collapsing while Walter is ascending it.
They hire a bunch of contractors to come and get the house up to code and these guys are working on the house for what seems like an eternity. No matter how long they stay they continually insist that they will be done in "two weeks."
Some of my fondest memories of Hanks' comedy come from this very film including the way he laughs after a bathtub crashes through the floor as well as a sequence where he ends up trapped in the floor when a rug fall through with him inside of it.
[source](https://hidrauliktiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/pros-and-flooring.jpg)Most of the humor in this film is low-brow but that is all fine and dandy with me. I suppose that before Hanks grew up this sort of thing worked for him and since he was putting out what seemed like several comedy films a year back then that all made millions, it worked for the public, and also for the studios.
Trailers were pretty bad in the 80's but I can assure you the movie is better than this preview would indicate.
I think that because Tom Hanks became such a profound drama actor in the 90's and beyond, that it is kind of unlikely that we are going to see him doing much comedy any time soon. It was kind of the only thing he did back in the day and well, Shelly Long was still relevant then as well - she doesn't do much these days but that may be by choice for all I know. I don't know if this film is available on Netflix but in my mind it is one of the better comedies from the 80's and it was quite successful at the box office. It was directed by Spielberg, so I suppose that was a forgone conclusion.
On a scale of "Urgh!" to "Wowsers" I give The Money Pit a rating of....
