Tag: #homealone

2¢ Christmas, Was it really that bad?

Unnecessary Reboot Alert: Not So Sweet Home Alone

Just being Bree

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¢ Christmas, Dare to Compare

Dare To Compare: Home Alone And Doctor Who Christmas Special: The Runaway Bride

Just being Bree

Negligent parenting… So nice they did it twice!

Eight-year-old Kevin McAlister ( Macaulay Culkin) gets his wish when his family accidentally leaves him home alone for Christmas. The bright side is that someone is home to protect the house from being robbed. It’s one kid against two lame-brained bandits with Kevin winning through the use of some quick thinking and set of booby traps. In the end, Kevin learns that he’d rather be with his family than without them, and everyone is reunited on Christmas Day.

Two years later, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is released. It’s the same plot as the original. The only major difference is that Kevin takes the wrong flight to New York instead of Florida with the rest of his family. Instead of a scary next-door neighbor, there’s a scary bird lady. The bandits have escaped jail and somehow mange to run into Kevin. (Because they wanted to keep the plot as realistic as possible!) Naturally, they’re out for revenge. Instead of robbing homes, they’ve switched things up and are robbing toy stores! Kevin stops them by employing the same methods as last because why mess with what ain’t broke?! Once again, the bad guys lose to a kid, and the family is reunited on Christmas Day.

Both movies are fun and laugh-out-loud funny even though the writers copy-and-pasted the first script over to a new document come time for the sequel and prayed to God no one would notice! (And then they did it again with a different kid five years later… And again…And again…) Watch all the Home Alone you can stand on Disney Plus!

When Donna (Catherine Tate) mysteriously winds up in the TARDIS, The Doctor (David Tennant) finds himself with more than he barganed for: a loud-mouth, obnoxious bride-to-be, Robot Santas, killer Christmas trees, and the Empress of Racnoss’s plan to destroy the world. And he’s still getting over the loss of Rose Tyler. It’s anything but peace on earth!

This is Doctor Who at its most bonkers. There’s no other show where you can take robot Santas and giant spider monsters hell-bent on world annihilation and have it make some sort of sense by story’s end The chemistry between David Tennant and Catherine Tate is absolute fire! One of the best comedic duos on television. Thankfully, this isn’t the last time we see them together. The Runaway Bride lays the groundwork for stories to come. It’s funny. It’s serious and emotional when it needs to be. It’s insane and fun. I enjoyed this special more the second time around. Donna can be annoying at first, but has grown on me with time. She ends up having one of the best character arcs of the show, but Spoilers! As River Song likes to say!