OK. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before! A bratty kid gets accidentally left behind by his loud, obnoxious family when they leave on Christmas Vacation. Sound familiar? Yeah. That’s cause it’s been done 5 times before and Home Sweet Home Alone brings the grand total up to 6!
Max Mercer (Archie Yates) is left home alone when his family goes to Japan for Christmas. Days before their departure date, they stop at a neighbor’s house to use the bathroom. While there, Max steals what turns out to be an heirloom worth $200,000.
Neighbors, Pam (Ellie Kemper) and Jeff (Rob Delaney) are desperate to get the ugly doll back so that they can collect the money so that they don’t have to move. They’re desperate. Desperate people do desperate things. Things like breaking and entering. They plan a break-in to retrieve their stolen property. Max overhears their plot and immediately starts scheming and plotting an elaborate booby trap to protect himself and his home from the well-intentioned burglars.
It’s a slightly different spin on an oft-told and worn out tale. Unlike in the classic original story, Pam and Jeff don’t actually want to hurt Max, they just want their doll back. The ending is sweet, but it isn’t worth this long mess of a movie to get there. There’s not much that’s new to keep your attention. It’s long and boring. It tries to be funny but fails more than succeeds at its humor. There’s a great scene where someone is watching a remake of the film that Kevin watched in the original. It’s said that remakes aren’t as great as the Classics and that couldn’t be more true, especially in this case. Maybe it’s time to put an end to the Home Alone franchise once and for all. Because 6 times is 4 times too many. There’s nothing bad about this movie. It’s just not good. At all.
Was it really that bad? Yes, yes it was. Watch it now on Disney Plus. Of course, I don’t know why you would bother with the original sitting right there, but that’s just me.
2¢ Movie Reviews 