Home Alone (film series)

HOME ALONE (PG)

D: Chris Columbus

20th Century Fox (John Hughes)

US 1990

98 mins

Comedy

W: John Hughes

DP: Julio Macat

Ed: Raja Gosnell

Mus: John Williams

PD: John Muto

Macauley Culkin (Kevin McCallister), Joe Pesci (Harry Lime), Daniel Stern (Marv Merchants), John Heard (Peter McCallister), Catherine O'Hara (Kate McCallister), Roberts Blossom (Old Man Marley)

The most successful family comedy of 1990 may get less and less funny with each repeat viewing, but on it's original release it was a real hoot.

When his family oversleep and have to hastily get to the airport for a Christmas vacation, they accidentally leave 10-year-old Kevin alone in the upstairs bedroomc, not realising their mistake until their plane lands in Paris.

Kevin himself has the time of his life with no adults to spoil his fun. He raids his brother's bedroom, eats all the junk food he wants, watches inappropriate movies and gets up to all kinds of mischief, but when a pair of incompetent robbers try to break in, it's up to Kevin to foil their plans himself.

Writer John Hughes and director Chris Columbus do a great job rejuvenating slapstick comedy for a new era, and while the film does have it's flaws, it has to be regarded as a landmark film of the 1990's as well as a perennial Christmas classic (despite not actually having anything to do with the festive season).

8/10

He's up past his bedtime in the city that never sleeps

HOME ALONE 2: LOST IN NEW YORK (PG)

D: Chris Columbus

20th Century Fox (John Hughes)

US 1992

120 mins

Comedy

W: John Hughes

DP: Julio Macat

Ed: Raja Gosnell

Mus: John Williams

PD: John Muto

Macauley Culkin (Kevin McCallister), Joe Pesci (Harry Lime), Daniel Stern (Marv Merchants), John Heard (Peter McCallister), Catherine O'Hara (Kate McCallister), Brenda Fricker (The Pigeon Lady), Tim Curry (Mr. Hector)

Practically a remake of the original movie, except Macauley Culkin's precocious performance isn't quite as cute this time around.

Instead of being left home alone, this time young Kevin is separated from his family at the airport and gets on the wrong flight, ending up in New York City. Someone call social services!

With the aid of his father's credit card, he checks into a fancy hotel and runs up huge amounts on room service, before the pretentious manager gets suspicious and throws him out on the street where, lo and behold, Kevin bumps into the incompetent criminals from the first film.

Everything is pretty much a carbon copy from the first film except it's bigger, louder and more, and though a few of the slapstick moments evoke a chuckle of two, it's easy to feel cheated that you've paid to watch the same film twice.

5/10

HOME ALONE 3 (PG)

D: Raja Gosnell

20th Century Fox (John Hughes & Hilton Green)

US 1997

102 mins

Comedy

W: John Hughes

DP: Julio Macat

Ed: Bruce Green, Malcolm Campbell & David Rennie

Mus: Nick Glennie-Smith

PD: Henry Bumstead

Alex D. Linz (Alex Pruitt), Olek Krupa (Petr Beaupre), Rya Kilhstedt (Alice Ribbons), Lenny Von Dohlen (Burton Jernighan), David Thornton (Earl Unger)

The characters from the first two films are cast aside and the plot barely follows the same formula, therefore it can be easily argued that the film shouldn't contain the words 'Home' and 'Alone' in the title at all, despite being penned once more by John Hughes.

All that has remained is a kid outwitting dumbass criminals, this time they're trying to break into his house to steal some microchips while his mum's at work and it's up to him to devise a plan to outsmart them.

It's very much one film too far and it's no surprise that it didn't even do a fraction of the business which the first two movies did at the box office.

4/10

Scarlett Johansson & Alex D. Linz in Home Alone 3

Holiday classics were meant to be broken

HOME SWEET HOME ALONE (PG)

D: Dan Mazer

Disney / 20th Century Studios (Hutch Parker & Dan Wilson)

US 🇺🇸 2021

93 mins

Comedy

W: Mikey Day & Streeter Seidell [based on the screenplay “Home Alone” by John Hughes]

DP: Mitchell Amundsen

Ed: David Rennie & Dan Zimmerman

Mus: John Debney

Archie Yates (Max Mercer), Rob Delaney (Jeff McKenzie), Ellie Kemper (Pam McKenzie), Aisling Bea (Carol Mercer), Andy Daly (Mike Mercer)

Since the original Home Alone was such a huge box office success, it’s understandable from a business perspective why it spawned so many sequels and spin-offs, even if later efforts were either released direct-to-video or as TV movies.

This 2021 reboot was released direct to Disney’s streaming service following their acquisition of 20th Century Fox’s catalogue of movies. However, it probably should have been left unreleased in a vault to gather dust as it truly is an abysmal offering, not even fit to lace the first film’s boots.

The mischievous tyke left home alone this time around is Max Mercer, an obnoxious brat who makes the film practically impossible to enjoy, even when he’s protecting his house from trespassers who are merely trying to get their own property back!

The contrived set-up sees Max use an open house real estate viewing as an opportunity to use the bathroom, and upon meeting the owners, sees a box of antique dolls, including one with a defect.

When the owners discover the defective doll has a hefty auction sum attached to it, they discover it’s missing and the prime suspect was the rude little boy, prompting a quest to retrieve it.

The film is annoying from the opening moment, with no likeable characters, no jokes and lazy slapstick that would have felt dated back in the 1990’s.

Rewatch the original instead of this festive turkey, which was easily the worst film of 2021 and hopefully one to kill off the Home Alone series once and for all.

1/10