Home Sweet Home Alone
While pretty much everything beyond Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) stinks, putting last year’s Home Sweet Home Alone (2021) right at the bottom of the barrel is a no-brainer.
Not only is the film’s main child protagonist Archie Yates (Max Mercer) insufferably annoying, he’s actually the antagonist, as the film’s two bumbling signature burglars are completely justified when they break into their house.
Perhaps one of the most unforgivable things about Home Sweet Home Alone, though, is just how cheap and straight-to-streaming-service it all feels. That, and the fact it tries to canonize itself within the original Home Alone series.
Home Alone: Taking Back the House
The Home Alone franchise took a huge nose-dive after the first two movies. In fact, nothing beyond those Christmas classics should have ever existed. But at least none of the movies tried to bring back the McCallisters. Right? Wrong!
Home Alone: Taking Back the House (2002), the fourth movie in the Home Alone series, actually reunites us - well, tries to but fails - with the family from the first two movies, including Kevin McAllister himself.
Oh, but there’s a massive catch - every single character has been completely recast. This, however, is a good thing, as it allows you to totally disassociate from the first two movies. In other words, this is NOT a Home Alone sequel.
Home Alone: The Holiday Heist
Home Alone: The Holiday Heist (2012) is a bad movie, but at least it doesn’t bring back “characters” from the first two and recast them (total sacrilege). It’s also a masterpiece when compared with Home Sweet Home Alone.
Christian Martin is Finn Baxter, who must protect his home from Malcolm McDowell’s evil villain Sinclair. If you have 90 or so minutes to spare over the Holidays, it’s worth a watch - but only if you’re a Home Alone nut.
Or perhaps you’re simply making notes as to how to protect your own home against burglars during the festive period. It’s one of the positives of any Home Alone entry, unless of course it’s Home Sweet Home Alone.
Home Alone 3
Upon its release, Home Alone 3 (1997) was instantly resisted by fans of the original two movies. Perhaps it’s because it’s a completely unnecessary sequel, or maybe it’s because Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) is nowhere in sight.
Over the years, however, and this probably has something to do with the awful sequels that followed, Home Alone 3 has become somewhat appreciated by fans.
After all, it really isn’t all that bad, provided you lower your expectations and prepare for a straight-to-video quality affair. Alex D Linz is also pretty entertaining as Alex Pruitt, although Kevin McCallister he ain’t!
Home Alone
Finally, we arrive at a Home Alone movie really worth talking about - the original, of course. Home Alone (1990) is a bonafide Christmas classic, in which young Kevin is left home alone by his parents over the Holidays.
Enter the Wet Bandits, Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern), two bumbling burglars who realize that the McCallisters have gone on vacation, leaving their seemingly helpless son all alone in a suspiciously large house.
But the crooks get more than what they bargained for when Kevin turns his entire house into one big booby-trap! However, it’s really the heart-warming stuff that makes Home Alone what it is (but the traps are also hilarious).
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
Many Home Alone fans would scoff at the idea of seeing Home Alone 2: Lost in New York at the top spot, even if it is a widely loved sequel. Our reasons? Well, there are many, but we think it’s as iconic as the first.
This time, Kevin is, as the title says, lost in New York, but where better to spend the Holidays than the Big Apple? He’s alone, though, of course, and before long, he’s discovered by Harry and Marv, who are now the Sticky Bandits.
In true Home Alone fashion, chaos ensues, as Kevin transforms his uncle’s house into an even bigger trap than his own. However, just like the first film, this one is very heart-warming stuff.
