The Money Pit

As a yuppie nightmare, this is much safer than After Hours, but no less funny. Hanks is a successful lawyer, most of whose clients are 16 stone transvestite rock bands with names like 'The Cheap Girls'. When his girlfriend's ex-husband reappropriates their love nest, he is forced to buy a large amount of real estate out in the suburbs of New York. This is the money pit. Part of the pleasure is watching the house fulfil your worst expectations: doors come off hinges, wiring burns up like a powder trail, baths crash through ceilings, roofs leak. You can see it coming, but it still has the delicious anticipation of the slow burn. And it all gets much worse. Director Richard Benjamin has the rare gift of knowing just where the funnybone lies, a certain taste for Keaton-esque slapstick, and a very fine comic performer in Hanks. CPea.