Rent Home Alone (1990)

Yule be Sorry if You Mess with Kevin - Home Alone review by griggs

Nothing says Christmas like a neglected eight-year-old booby-trapping his suburban mansion while two grown men are maimed with paint cans and blowtorches. It shouldn’t work—but it absolutely does. The set-up is absurd, the violence borderline cartoonish, and yet the whole thing is weirdly heartfelt.

Macaulay Culkin carries it with the confidence of someone who’s never paid a gas bill. His Kevin is bratty, clever, and just self-aware enough to make you root for him. Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern lean hard into slapstick misery, and somehow their suffering becomes festive.

What makes it sing, though, is the balance. It’s anarchic, yes—but also cosy. There’s pathos buried under the pratfalls, and just enough sentiment to keep it from tipping into sadism. John Hughes knew how to blend chaos and charm, and Chris Columbus makes it gleam.

Not just a holiday classic—more like Tom and Jerry by way of Frank Capra. With ice. And screaming.

Family Fun Filled Christmas Treat - Home Alone review by GI

A family fun filed Christmas comedy treat. It has all the ingredients that you want from a seasonal family film and above all it's genuinely hilarious mostly due to Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern as the hapless burglars who encounter resourceful 8 year old Macaulay Culkin who is intent on protecting his family home. But overall the film is focused on family and its importance especially at Christmas. Essentially a situation comedy where the large Chicago based McAllister family of Dad (John Heard) and Mum (Catherine O'Hara), their five children and various members of the extended family head off to France for a big Christmas holiday. The trouble is in their haste to catch their flight they inadvertently leave young Kevin at home. At first he's rather pleased about this and indulges himself but then begins to miss his family. But he's given plenty to do when he decides he has to foil the attempts by the 'wet bandits', as the daft crooks like to call themselves, in their efforts to raid his house. By setting booby traps which they fall easily into the film has a slapstick style that is really funny. There's also a nice side plot involving a mysterious neighbour (Roberts Blossom) who the McAllister children believe is a murderer. The film has a warm, good fun vibe and manages to deal with issues of sibling rivalry and gives a Childs eye view of what family life can sometimes feel like. A real treasure and a film that is a must see every Christmas time.