Home Alone

Disclaimer:

The movie I’m reviewing is rated: PG

There aren’t many inappropriate scenes here, but there are some overly violent ones.

Be warned.

Ah, what a charming holiday classic full of violence and maiming. I probably could’ve said the same thing about the last movie I reviewed, but I digress. Still, it’s always been interesting to me how this film has managed to become a holiday staple despite its unconventional approach to capturing it. That could be the reason why so many people return to it year after year. If you look on Disney+ in America around this season, you’ll notice how Home Alone is one of the most viewed films on the platform.

Whatever the reason for its popularity, there’s no mistaking that people love it. I wouldn’t consider myself one of those people who love it, but I do remember at least liking it. My family watched it once together when I was young and I had a fun time, mostly with the climax (like I imagine most people do), but is there something alongside that scene everyone loves that I missed the first time? It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen this film, so I could easily have forgotten.

With that being said, let’s test my memory by giving Macaulay Culkin an acting career and teaching kids that home invasions are fun torture opportunities with the original Home Alone.

Watching this movie again, I totally forgot John Williams did the score. Also, whenever Williams is attached to a film, even one I dislike, his compositions are usually one of my favorite aspects. Home Alone is by no means a film I dislike, but one of my larger takeaways was still the great score. Even if the scene of Marv sneaking around the basement sounds pretty similar to Tusken Raiders looting Luke Skywalker’s unconscious body.

That aside, who’re we spending this Christmas with? The McCallisters! What’re they like? White trash in suburban clothing.

About as hectic as I was expecting.
…Wait, why’s there a random cop here?

*I don’t believe, in a house with* ***this many people****, there’s no shampoo.*

*What am I supposed to do? Shake his hand and say “Congratulations, you’re an idiot?”*

*You’re what the French call “Les incompetents.”*

*I wouldn’t let you sleep in my room if you were growing on my ass.*

*Look what you did you little jerk.*
You get the point.
These people suck.

In fact, it’s almost impressive how unlikable each of these characters are. The only character that doesn’t seem like complete garbage is Kate McCallister, Kevin’s mother (played by Catherine O’Hara). Of course, a lot of the time when Hollywood needs a mother they call Catherine O’Hara, but Kate McCallister is probably my favorite character in this movie. Mostly because she’s the one who goes through the emotional roller coaster of finding out her son got left at home by himself.

This isn’t to say she’s the greatest person overall. In the beginning she can be a bit neglectful to her family as she’s preparing everything for their Paris trip, but you can argue that most of the adults are just busy and overworked with a large family (except Uncle Frank, he sucks). Why Kate specifically is my favorite character is because she’s the one who feels the most like a real person. She also adds a much needed heart to the film that’s otherwise kinda mean-spirited.

*If I have to sell my soul to the Devil himself, I’m going to get home to my son.*
It wouldn’t surprise me if this character, in part, inspired Marlin from *Finding Nemo*.

Kate can even be funny -

- distraught -

- and even jovial.

But enough about Kate. Our main character is the young Kevin McCallister (played by Macaulay Culkin) He’s probably the worst character in this. Especially in the beginning.

[KATE] *Hey, hey hey! Get off! Kevin, out of the room.*
*Hang up the phone and* ***make me****, why don’tcha?*

*Now, get upstairs.*
I am upstairs, dummy.

*I hope I never see any of you jerks* ***again***.

[thinking] *I wish they would all just disappear.*
This kid is a menace.
It doesn’t help that he looks like Dennis, too.

Kevin is a major brat in the beginning, but it does capture how most kids would act in a family of this size because they’re not getting the attention they want. Although, we have to like Kevin by the end of the movie and right now I hate him. However, over time we should grow attached to him. I’d say the film does a good job of this after Kevin is left alone.

Before I continue with Kevin’s character, I’d like to mention that the film also does a pretty good job setting up the scenario for Kevin to be left alone. They’re already a large family and there’s strong winds that night which take down a tree branch and knock out the power to the house. This leads to the family’s alarm not going off and having to rush to the airport. Kevin was already put in the attic to calm down the night before, so it makes sense that he wouldn’t wake up to the sounds of panicked packing below.

It also makes sense that the family would be so focused on getting everything ready that they forgot they left Kevin in the attic. The only thing that’s kinda forced is the random kid that shows up to annoy the van drivers.

He shows up out of absolutely nowhere and for no other reason than to have the older sister miscount the number of kids.

*…seven, eight,* ***nine***…
Considering that the rest of this setup is pretty believable, I suppose I can give it a pass though.

Anyway, back to Kevin. His progression from unlikable snot to charming child icon is surprisingly believable and mostly because of the writing centered around him. While the writing does most of the heavy lifting, Macaulay Culkin’s acting is…alright. It’s not bad necessarily, and he was still a kid when this was filmed, but…how do I put this…he’s still a Culkin. This character was undoubtedly his best role, and he’s clearly trying, but sometimes he can seem a bit off. Usually during emotional scenes.

When he’s expected to convey dramatic emotion, like when he apologizes to his family photo and says that if they come back he won’t act out again, he comes across as a bit fake. The good news is that there aren’t a whole lot of those scenes, and usually the film plays to Culkin’s strengths by not giving him too much dialogue and just having him act through his facial expressions.

When Kevin smiles in the movie, it feels so genuine and heartwarming.
But, of course, there are also moments he can convey other emotions.
Mostly fear or distress.

He shall be saved through the power of reversed footage.

Also, Macaulay Culkin has gone on record to say this is the one thing he’ll never do for his fans again:
Make that face.
…I don’t blame him.
The movie seemed to like it though, because it does it twice.

That looks like it belongs on the poster.

However, without the great writing, this movie probably wouldn’t have done as well as it did. Kevin manages to go through an arc by becoming more of an adult, standing up for himself and his family, and connecting with other people. None of that would have been possible if the writing didn’t make it so believable. Most of the scenes in this movie revolve around Kevin being a kid at home by himself (why else would the movie be called Home Alone?) and just doing kid stuff.

He bounces around on his parents’ bed while eating popcorn, sleds down his main staircase, watches movies while eating junk food, and goes through his elder siblings’ “private collections.” It also makes the difference that the same day he’s left alone, he doesn’t fully believe that he’s alone. Part of him just believes his family is playing a joke on him and he tries to provoke them to knock it off.

*Buzz, I’m going through all your private stuff! You better come out and pound me!*

*Guys, I’m eating junk and watching rubbish! You better come out and stop me!*

While he was eager to see his family disappear earlier in the film, when he first discovers his family missing, he’s actually confused and a bit scared.

It’s only after Kevin remembers the mean things his family said the night before that he feels empowered to do whatever he wants.

*Kevin, you’re what the French call “Les incompetents.”*

*Kevin, I’m going to feed you to my tarantula.*
Even some things they **didn’t** say.

It also makes sense that when Kevin first comes across the Wet Bandits, Harry and Marv (played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern), his first reaction isn’t to put them through hell, but to hide and drive them away. This is a much more believable reaction, and only through repeated interactions with the Wet Bandits does Kevin eventually get the idea to set traps for them. We also see in these moments just how smart Kevin can be when he needs to, even if it’s a bit unrealistic at times.

A nice touch is also seeing Kevin test out one of his ruses on the Pizza Guy before fully putting it into action when Marv shows up.

Speaking of the bandits, I think they’re just the right kind of antagonists for this story. Harry is the smarter of the two and makes all the plans while Marv is the one who usually does the legwork. Despite Harry being smarter than Marv, neither of them are really that smart which is part of why I think they’re the perfect antagonists for this film. It’s kinda like A Series of Unfortunate Events that way by having smart kids living in a world of dumb adults.

*You did it again, didn’t you? You left the water running, didn’t you?*

*Harry, it’s our calling card. All the great ones leave their mark.*
My personal head-canon says these two are a couple.

Most of the things I’ve talked about are things that I like. Is there anything I don’t like? Well, let’s talk about Old Man Marley (played by Roberts Blossom).

He’s a returning character in the film and is first introduced in the opening before the family leaves. Buzz (played by Devin Ratray) tells Kevin his spooky backstory.

[BUZZ] *You ever heard of the “South-Bend Shovel Slayer?”*

Apparently, Old Man Marley is a serial killer from the late 50’s who killed his victims with a shovel and puts them in a garbage can full of salt to dispose of the bodies. So now he salts the sidewalks every night to keep the neighborhood in check. Sure. Throughout the film, he makes frequent appearances to scare Kevin until it’s revealed what kind of person he is.

*Merry Christmas.*
A misunderstood man who has a shaky relationship with his adult son.

While Old Man Marley does play a part in the climax of the film, his purpose for being here feels the slightest bit manipulative. All he does is prove to Kevin he shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but even the rumor about him is awkwardly concocted. When I first saw this movie as a kid, I thought the Old Man Marley story was just something Buzz, being the bully older brother, made up on his own to scare Kevin. As it turns out, the whole neighborhood believes it.

*There’s a lot of things going around about me, but none of it’s true.*
I suppose this isn’t a bad or unbelievable choice, people around here may just have prejudices against an old guy shoveling sidewalks, but I would’ve preferred if it was just a campfire story Buzz made up.
The story would’ve made more sense that way.
If the whole town thought he was a killer, wouldn’t he be more of a recluse, only stepping out of his house when he needs to so people won’t gawk at him?

Old Man Marley is a charming person, so I don’t dislike him as a character, but the reason he feels manipulative is because this sequence with him and Kevin in the church comes right before the climax. You know, the same climax where Harry and Marv go through Kevin’s fun-house of horrors. It’s a drastic tone shift to make, and, even with the lesson Kevin learns, does Kevin need another lesson to learn? He’s already learning at least 2, maybe 3 lessons, so here is where the movie starts to feel crowded.

Now it really feels like the film is going all in on that warm/fuzzy holiday feeling to shoehorn its way into being the next holiday classic. Since it worked, I guess I’m the one who should be ashamed for criticizing it. Just because this movie was so successful doesn’t mean I’m not gonna point out things I think aren’t the best, though. In fact, because of the Old Man Marley stuff, it makes me realize that this movie is trying to be a lot of things at once.

Family comedy -

I took a shower washing every body part with actual soap, including all my major crevices, including in between my toes and in my belly button, which I never did before, but sort of enjoyed. I washed my hair with adult formula shampoo and used cream-rinse for that “just-washed” shine.
Of course he’d model his morning routine after Patrick Bateman.

- mean-spirited -

*Damn, how low can you get giving Kris Kringle a parking ticket on Christmas Eve? What’s next, rabies shots for the Easter Bunny?*

- dramatic/emotional -

*I’m desperate. I’m begging you, from a mother to a mother,* ***please***.

- heartwarming -

- and, of course, action-packed.

I completely forgot this scene of him escaping a cop after accidentally shoplifting a toothbrush was in the movie.
For the climax it makes sense, but here it seems like they just wanted an action scene.

Speaking of the climax, it’s probably worth talking about at this point. Although, it’s one of those things that’s so iconic it needs no introduction. With that said, here’s a picture of Kevin holding a BB gun.

*Hello.*
I choose to believe this is the origin story for the Jigsaw Killer.

What I like most about this climax is, despite being over-the-top, it’s surprisingly believable. All of the traps Kevin constructs for Harry and Marv are simple and rudimentary; something you could easily see an 8-year-old creating. From stuff as simple as putting breakable Christmas ornaments on the floor for someone to step on, to attaching paint cans to strings and lobbing them at people, I have an easier time believing Kevin was able to set this stuff up than that mannequin diversion earlier.

Every part of the climax is almost perfectly timed, the sound effects match the impacts amazingly, and everything looks like it hurts. Well…about that. Some of the stunts were especially dangerous for the cast and stunt crew to perform. Slipping on the micro-machines, while it may not look like much, was done practically by stuntmen and was one of the more dangerous stunts performed since it was done on a real hardwood floor with no padding (Chris Columbus on Home Alone stunts).

Real quick, a nice touch about the movie is that it’ll occasionally show a shot of Buzz’s tarantula wandering around the house after Kevin destroys its habitat. Eventually Kevin uses the tarantula as a quick escape when Marv grabs hold of him in one scene. As it turns out, the tarantula that was used in the stunt was still equipped with a venomous stinger and could’ve fatally stung Daniel Stern (Screen Rant). It took a lot of convincing to get Stern to do it, but he eventually caved when they agreed to only do one take.

Also, the spider handler told Stern not to scream.
If he did, it could’ve frightened the spider and caused it to sting him.
So instead, Stern merely opened his mouth and the iconic scream was dubbed in later.

Outside of those, the other stunts that were performed during the climax were accomplished using clever movie-making tricks. While they look painful, rest assured nobody was sustaining any major injuries during filming. Save that for Home Alone 2. For instance, when Harry gets his head burned by the blow-torch, Joe Pesci was wearing a protective plate so his scalp wouldn’t get melted. It also took a lot of convincing for Pesci to agree to that (Chris Columbus on Home Alone stunts).

It was only after he saw a stunt person perform the same stunt successfully that he agreed to do it.

Even the stunt with Marv stepping on the nail: that was done by using a rubber nail that retracted into the step when pressure was applied to the top of it (Chris Columbus on Home Alone stunts). The reason it’s so convincing is due to the angle of the shot and Daniel Stern’s dedicated performance.

Doesn’t make it any easier to watch, though.

In fact, there were no laughs on set as these stunts were being performed. Since all of them looked incredibly painful, the crew remained completely silent out of fear that someone actually hurt themselves (Chris Columbus on Home Alone stunts).

Despite all that, and the fact that (as an adult) it can be hard to watch at times, this climax is still a lot of fun just to see an 8-year-old boy show his potential house-robbers what for. Overall, I’d also say it helps round out the film in a satisfying way.

Considering the tone juggling, occasional awkward moments, and the movie obviously wanting to be the next Christmas classic, it’s kinda surprising it worked as well as it did. In fact, the film most likely shouldn’t have worked. The cinemas that showed it when it was first released in 1990 didn’t believe in it, so they only showed it in select locations. Only after the film started setting box office records did they expand the film’s coverage.

A lot of people, and even early critics of the film, point out the same things I did: the film is all over the place, the characters are insufferable, it throws in morals that don’t belong, and is honestly unfunny at times (Rotten Tomatoes). Despite that, I still like it. Not love it, but like it. I totally understand, and agree, with the things critics of this film say. For anyone who’s reading this and doesn’t like this movie, I totally get it. The same reason someone likes it could be the same reason someone else doesn’t.

For me, it’s one of those movies that’s hard to define why I like it. Naturally I’ve talked about some of the details earlier that I enjoyed, but if I were to pick a single reason as to why I like this movie…I can’t do it. Part of it could be overexposure. Overexposure is the primary reason we consider It’s a Wonderful Life a Christmas classic. When you see a film enough times, not only do you start to notice more things wrong with it, but also positive things you didn’t notice before which can strengthen your enjoyment of it.

That could be what’s happening here, but it’s hard to say. I think a good way to tell is by taking a look at the sequels. As Home Alone became a franchise, people started to quickly catch on how repetitive and stale this kind of entertainment can be. With Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, moviegoers were much more split on it. With Home Alone 3, viewers quickly recognized it as Hollywood begging for money. By Home Alone 4 everyone stopped caring. What does the original have that the sequels don’t? Passion.

Despite its flaws, the original Home Alone still has a dedication to film-making, character, story, entertainment, and emotional connection even if it doesn’t always come across. With the sequels, that passion was quickly replaced with greed, and if you want your film to be a classic, you cannot have money be your driving force. That’s not how it works.

With that being said, if you haven’t seen this movie, first off: how did you manage that? Second, I hope this review has given you a good idea of whether you should put this movie on the shelf with the rest of your Christmas classics or leave it on the movie rack at Target alone.

I’ll say this movie has earned itself a 3.5/5 aftershave bottles. For a moment I considered giving it a 4/5, but I thought it had too many problems for me to go that far. I even thought about giving it a 3/5, but what pushed it over the top for me was its passion like I mentioned. This was a risky film to make, but as it turns out, it paid off nicely. I have to respect that even if the film itself isn’t great. It’s still good, but not great.

This will be my last review before Christmas, so I’d just like to take this time and wish y’all a Merry Christmas.

There will be another review I’ll post on Friday, December 27th, but that will be after the holiday.

With that said, I hope you all have a fabulous holiday season.

Well wishes to you, and I’ll see y’all next week.

(I make no claim of ownership for any of the images used in this post)

(Each of them are owned entirely by their respective copyright holders, which are not me)

(I’m just a humble blogger who talks about movies, I do not make them)

(Yet)

A Christmas Carol (2009)