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
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
