Home Sweet Home Alone

When a movie becomes a verb, then you know you did something right. That is exactly what happened with Home Alone, a film that became a way to describe a situation in which traps would be used to persuade a would-be-burglar to try another house. That is also what happens when you become not just a Christmas classic, but a classic movie period. With that stature comes great responsibility as well as multiple sequels and of course attempts to capture the same magic that the first film did. While that sounds easy if you just follow the formula, all you have to do is look at the other Home Alone movies to realize that they have yet to do that, and with Home Sweet Home Alone that Christmas tradition continues.

Max (Archie Yates) is a kid who just wants a little piece and quiet as he is having a hard time finding it. You see his family is taking a trip to Japan tomorrow and he has a lot of people at his house for the flight the next day. Feeling neglected and over saturated, Max finds a place where he disappears and also where he ends up getting left behind. Max awakens and he has the peace and quiet he wanted and being without a parent, he can do whatever he wants. This includes building the ultimate race track, and eating more candy than is good for you. There are darker sides though to being a kid alone in a big house, and that’s if someone wants to break in. This isn’t some criminals who want to steal things though, this is just a simple misunderstanding, one that you know is not going to end well. Jeff (Rob Delaney) and Pam (Ellie Kemper) are just trying to save their family home and they think that Max has something that they own. Of course you know the rest, they try to get in, traps are set, and pain ensues for the both of them, but this ending is a lot different. Written by Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell, both SNL alums, had a plan, but it must have been a lot funnier in their head than what made it to the screen.

I didn’t really expect much, but the fact that Archie Yates, Rob Dalaney, and Ellie Kemper were in this film gave me some hope, which was quickly stomped out with the effort put in by the writers. It’s always intriguing when you take funny people and make them not funny, and Home Sweet Home Alone found a way. I think one of the bigger problems is that a 1990 PG film is different from 2021 PG film. The gags seem to have less punch to them and the “home aloneing” of it all is just not as clever or original enough. I don’t fault Disney for wanting to make new Home Alone, but I do fault them for not making a good one. That though was going to be a tough task, unless you made it PG-13 or even R Rated, something  Better Watch Out did and is the best Home Alone movie outside Home Alone. Home Sweet Home Alone is the movie no one asked for, and was extremely disappointing, much on the level of getting socks for Christmas, only to find that they don’t fit.