Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.5

The Money Pit Blu-ray Movie Review

Home inspectors: love them, hire them.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman August 14, 2016

For the vast majority, there's no bigger investment of one's life than love and no bigger investment of one's money than a home. Many -- most -- of life's adventures find their starting points in love and the comforts of one's own space, wrapped in those loving arms and surrounded by those warm, safe walls. But if one crumbles, sometimes so does the other. A love gone bad could mean a staleness settling over a once happy home. And if a home crumbles, and all that money invested in it seems lost or lessened, there could be few, if any, more challenging strains on the bonds of love. The Money Pit takes a look at how young love is shaped and evolved when a couple, not yet married but living happily ever after, buys a beautiful country estate for a fifth of its value, expecting the steal of the century but finding only decaying walls and diminishing spirits. Forget the usual fixer-upper home, never mind the noisy neighbors. This is true hell within four walls -- assuming those walls stand -- and it'll be the ultimate test of one couple's staying power as they struggle to laugh through, accept, and survive the never-ending deterioration of the place they call home.

There goes the tub.

Attorney Walter Fielding (Tom Hanks) and symphony violinist Anna Crowley (Shelley Long) aren't married, but they may as well be. They're in love and living together, but they're kicked out of their temporary digs when Anna's ex-husband, and her symphony's conductor, Max Beissart (Alexander Godunov) returns a week early from a stay overseas. With nowhere to live and desperate for a place to call home, Walter and Anna eventually decide to buy a million dollar home that they receive for the bargain-basement price of $200,000. It's a price that's too good to be true, and it is. Their first day isn't relaxing, it's labor intensive. The stairs are in need of repair. The doorbell fries. The bed sinks. Sludge comes out of the pipes. Mere inconveniences compared to what the house has in store for them. As more and more things go wrong and their "bargain" home turns into a serious money pit, the couple's love and strength will be tested like never before. It's only a matter of whether they can laugh their way through the adventure or allow adversity to push them apart.

The fun in The Money Pit doesn't necessarily come from laughing at the couple's misfortune, but rather laughing with them. So long as they're at least somewhat accepting of their fate, it's fine. There's nothing inherently funny about good people falling victim to a bad investment and certainly not when their dreams are literally crumbling before their eyes, not to mention burning, frying, cracking, shaking, sinking, exploding, whatever challenge the movie sends their way. As with the characters, laughing is more a means to keep from crying. The actors play it well. The joy of buying the home is quickly replaced with disbelief that this-and-that could go wrong, which becomes grin-and-bear-it frustration, which turns into dismay, anger, and eventually a love-testing mental deterioration and even paranoia. It's almost a Horror movie, at times, particularly when the mood sours later on, but for the first two acts it's as much interesting interpersonal, human psychological examination as it is a Comedy. Walter and Anna become almost lab rats, tested to see how much a burden they can bear as everything they hold dear, everything they've worked for, all they want for their present, all their dreams for the future, fall apart with each new bit of destruction and chaos around the house. Will madness consume them?

It's in the film's final act, when that madness reaches its boiling point and the scales could tip in either direction for the couple's future, that it loses much, if not most, of its charm. It drags, hard, after a much lighter, albeit with dark undercurrents, open. The movie shifts from a rather pleasing and funny Comedy, again with more than a bit of underlying human interest emotion and drama, to a fairly drab back-and-forth between Walter and Anna that's a result of the stresses they've endured throughout the ordeal in the house. In the film's defense, the parallel to the crumbling house -- those dreams falling to pieces -- is very clear and thematically fits in the story. Whether it fits in the movie, to this hard-edged degree, is another story. The turn from painfully charming to downright ugly, even as the film tries its hardest to maintain a light edge, puts more of a dour note on the film than is needed. The Money Pit, then, is a fairly frustrating watch. It's funny, but uncomfortably so, as one couple's home deteriorates in every way imaginable. It gets too serious as their love begins to fray and fall apart. It's tonally uneven in a drastic way, even as it all fits, leaving the movie more frustrating than fulfilling.

The Money Pit Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Money Pit's 1080p transfer could stand a little jump in quality, but it's hardly a disappointment. The image is fairly well defined and clear. Intimate detailing is not much of a factor, with clothes lacking textural nuance and faces a bit flatter than seems ideal. However, many of the examples of wear around the house -- grime, stains, rough edges -- are presented nicely enough. Colors lack vitality, favoring a somewhat drab, but not entirely worn down, appearance. Even the most vibrant attire or natural greens struggle to exhibit much authentic punch. Black levels are a touch prone to crush and often feature a spike in grain that's otherwise rather light. Skin tones are a hint pale. Print deterioration is extremely light and never particularly bothersome. Compression issues are few and far between.

The Money Pit Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Universal has invested in a 5.1 lossless soundtrack to accompany The Money Pit's Blu-ray release, but the track is decidedly front heavy. It's a bit uneven in quality, but it more often than not favors the better end of the scale. Music to begin is nicely lively, decently spaced across the front and featuring fine definition to the myriad of shakers and percussion instruments in play. The opening titles Pop song, which is located just about exclusively up front, features adequate definition, fairly wide space, and nice lyrical vibrance and balance. Sharp Metal music plays off to the edges in one scene with commendable heft and depth. Many of the film's most prominent sound effects come in the form of destruction. Crashes, collapses, hammer strikes, rattling and burping pipes, and all sorts of mayhem are, mostly, well pronounced and weighty, but lacking much surround definition. A big rig's horn blares for what is the most realistic sonic blast in the movie. A train rumbles through the stage and blows its whistle in one scene, neither of which are particularly well defined or imaged, resulting in the most disappointing sonic moment in the movie. Lighter details fill in some gaps, particularly early on when clatter spreads out to the sides when the couple is kicked out of Max's home. Anna's symphony warms up before practice to nice, wide, detailed effect. Dialogue is fine, centered and well prioritized and only on rare occasions succumbing to a light scratchiness or shallowness.

The Money Pit Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of The Money Pit contains two extras. Unlike many other Universal catalogue titles, a top menu is included.

• The Making of The Money Pit (480i, 7:29): This vintage piece begins with behind-the-scenes footage and continues to look at story details, the physical challenges of the shoot, and shooting a key scene.
• The Money Pit Theatrical Trailer (480i, 1:25).

The Money Pit Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Money Pit is as frustrating movie. It's funny, but often uncomfortably so. It ends too darkly, even if that ending fits within the parallel themes the film presents. Performances are fine, and the movie's scenes of destruction are creative and well executed. Universal's Blu-ray release offers fair 1080p video, a good but decidedly front-heavy 5.1 lossless soundtrack, and a couple of brief extras. Rent it.