Home Alone 4

aka Home Alone: Taking Back the House

After fighting with his siblings, Kevin McCallister decides to spend Christmas with his father and his father’s new girlfriend, Natalie. When Kevin uncovers a plot to kidnap an important guest at Natalie’s Holiday party, no one believes him. Despite his track record, everyone chooses to believe that Kevin is acting out over his parent’s impending divorce. So Kevin takes it upon himself to foil the kidnapping plot in the manner he is most accustomed to: violent hijinks. Home Alone 4 stinks. From the amateurish cinematography and lighting to the choice to center the movie around characters from the first two Home Alone films. It just stinks. I mean, are we expected to believe that this brown-haired kid is the same person as the blonde-haired kid from the first two movies? I don’t think so buddy. And the choice to have the parents get back together at the end of the movie, with zero buildup, is disgusting and insane. Also, get this, at no point in the movie is Kevin ever home alone. Seriously. A pox on your house Home Alone 4. A pox on your house.

Rating: Six geese a-laying, FIVE GOLDEN RINGS, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree%

Secret Santa Rating: 48%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Home Alone 3

While stuck at home with the chicken pox, Alex Pruitt begins to notice some suspicious new people in his neighborhood. Little does he know, at first, that they're actually a group of international thieves who are trying to recover some stolen military tech that had accidentally been picked up by Alex's neighbor, Mrs. Hess. Once the thieves realize that their cover has been blown, they launch an all out assault on Alex's home. You can imagine how that goes. I was sixteen by the time that Home Alone 3 came out, twice the age of the lead character, and the series didn't have the same appeal to me anymore. I might have had more interest in seeing the movie if Macaulay Culkin had been in it but I can't really blame him for turning it down.

Rating: 52%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Fun Fact: Haviland Morris, who played Alex's mother, also played Marla Bloodstone in Gremlins 2: The New Batch.

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

A year has passed and the extended McCallister family are on their way to another destination Christmas vacation, this time to sunny Florida. However, their plans are sullied after a mishap at the airport sends Kevin to New York City, alone. And, it just so happens that a certain pair of burglars have managed to escape from prison as well. Home Alone 2 is not as good as the original Home Alone, which is hardly surprising. Lost in New York rushes the setup and repeats too many elements from the first film. The violence against the Wet Bandits has been amped up this time around, which still manages to delight. And the movie is really helped by the addition of Tim Curry as the hotel concierge. Watching him hold back tears after being slapped by Catherine O'Hara is amazing.

Rating: 70%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Home Alone

A few years ago, my sister decided to show Home Alone to her kids. They loved it, which is hardly surprising. Home Alone is a rollicking power fantasy for children. She did, however, have to explain to them what a VHS tape was. Ah, the passage of time. Watching the movie again, for the first time in many years, I appreciated how well the premise was set up. There’s a lot going on in that first act, but it’s very well executed. Kevin comes off a little brattier than I remembered, which makes sense because I was probably around the character’s age when I last watched the movie. I won’t lie, I got a little misty eyed when John Candy showed up. His scenes with Catherine O’Hara were definitely a highlight for me. The movie squeezes in a lesson about the importance of family, but it’s never cloying or maudlin.

Rating: 78%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Fun Fact: John Heard and Daniel Stern were both in C.H.U.D.