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The Films of Richard Benjamin

My Favorite Year

Racing with the Moon

City Heat

The Money Pit (February 14/06)

Like 1985's otherwise forgettable Volunteers, The Money Pit is often elevated by the mere presence of Tom Hanks - as the actor delivers a performance that is, generally speaking, far better than the film actually seems to deserve. Hanks stars as Walter Fielding, a well-to-do lawyer who thinks he's stumbled upon the deal of a lifetime in a lavish mansion that's being sold well under market value. Along with his longtime girlfriend, Anna (Shelley Long), Walter moves into the home expecting to make a few minor repairs - though it doesn't take long for the two to discover that the estate is riddled with complicated (and expensive) problems. With a supporting cast that includes Alexander Godunov, Yakov Smirnoff, and Joe Mantegna, The Money Pit is an affable (if entirely plotless) endeavor that's generally as absurd and ridiculous as one might've expected. Overlooking the film's needlessly sentimental third act, director Richard Benjamin does an effective job of piling on one comical catastrophe after another - most of which are enhanced by Hanks' increasingly hysterical and appropriately broad performance. The end result is a decent '80s comedy that benefits substantially from its star's winning work, as the picture otherwise suffers from a palpable lack of compelling, engrossing attributes.

out of

Little Nikita

My Stepmother Is an Alien

Downtown (July 29/18)

Relentlessly bland and hopelessly unfunny, Downtown follows straight-laced cop Alex Kearney (Anthony Edwards) as he's demoted to a station smack-dab in the worst part of town - with the movie detailing the character's ongoing efforts at ingratiating himself with his angry new partner (Forest Whitaker's Dennis Curren). (The two men eventually team up to take down an assortment of corrupt police officers and politicians, in a storyline that remains woefully underdeveloped from start to finish.) Filmmaker Richard Benjamin, working from a screenplay by Nat Maudlin, establishes Downtown's less-than-engrossing atmosphere right from the get-go, as the movie kicks off with a dull opening stretch that proves hopelessly ineffective at capturing the viewer's interest - with the tedious vibe compounded by a total lack of developed (or even interesting) characters. (Edwards, for example, proves utterly unable to transform his one-dimensional figure into anything more than a caricature of a cheerful go-getter.) The middling, interminable narrative ensures that it remains impossible to connect to or sympathize with the protagonists' continuing exploits, while the half-baked nature of the villains' endeavors paves the way for a final stretch that's as pointless as it is tedious. (There is, at least, an undeniably memorable death for one of the baddies.) It's finally impossible to muster up an ounce of enthusiasm for the mostly interminable Downtown, which is a shame, certainly, given the palpable potential afforded by the cast and promising setup.

out of

Mermaids

Made in America

Milk Money

Mrs. Winterbourne

The Pentagon Wars

The Sports Pages

Laughter on the 23rd Floor

The Shrink is In

Marci X

The Goodbye Girl

A Little Thing Called Murder

© David Nusair