Home Alone
Director: Chris Columbus
Writer: John Hughes
Starring: Macauley Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, John Heard, Roberts Blossom, Catherine O’Hara, Devin Ratray, John Candy, Larry Hankin (Because every legendary movie has to have one dude from Breaking Bad and Friends)
Reason for watching: It’s Black Friday, and I still don’t have a PS5. And it’s Christmas time. So I have to watch the essentials at least once each.
Number of times I’ve watched it: however many times Kevin would’ve put the wet bandits in the hospital with his various pranks.
***
I would like to think that police effectiveness and assertiveness in popular entertainment (movies, tv, video games) is measured on a scale from the cops in Home Alone, who are more concerned with donuts and passing the buck than a child’s safety, to the cops in Grand Theft Auto V, who will kill you at a moments notice for the slightest infraction of the law.
This is without a doubt a Christmas classic movie. But there is no way to really connect holiday essentials from one to another. This one is about a kid thwarting a robbery. There’s another Christmas classic that’s about a NYPD cop sneaking through air vents. Another one is about a dude who can’t leave his home town and then realizes he’s the reason the town has not become a dump. Do you see a through line? No. I couldn’t at first either. But you realize something after you’ve seen a Christmas movie for the billionth time.
This movie is about perseverance.
It’s littered with sub-plots about characters pile-driving through obstacles. Harry and Marv keep coming back to this home that they assume is Solomon’s palace only for them to get maimed past recognition (and Joe Pesci can’t even swear like he wants to). Kevin’s mom keeps fighting to get home through too many rust belt and east coast cities. Mr. Marley (My Dad pointed out to me today that this guy has to have been named after Scrooge’s old business partner) just wants to talk with someone about his son and actually spend time with his granddaughter. Regardless, this movie shows if you keep pushing through obstacles, you’ll get what you earn…which is a iron to the face or a blow torch to the head or being hit in the head by the shovel of a serial killer (I’m still not convinced he’s not a serial killer)…or getting back to your son.
Regardless of all the pontifications I just made, this movie deserves its classic status. It has nearly a $70 million lead between itself and the runner up for domestic box office gross in 1990. This movie made gangbusters. Macauley Culkin had his issues with fame after this movie, but he was a superstar for a while there. The physical comedy still works. You might be a statue if the ending scene with Mr. Marley doesn’t bring a tear to your eye. Sure some of the planning does not make any sense and the wet bandits are super incompetent if you think about it. But it’s Christmas, you grinch. Lighten up.
7/10
Until I see another one.