Movie Review: Disney Remakes And Inverts Home Alone And You’ll Want Your Heroes And Villains Back

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Now that we’re in the Christmas season, many people are rewatching their favorite Christmas movies. Among them are the beloved Home Alone movies.

The first two movies in the franchise had wild success and are watched and rewatched by families every holiday season. However, Home Alone 3 (released 1997), Home Alone 4 (released 2002), and Home Alone 5 (released 2012) fall short without the original cast and their poor story lines. With two exemplary Home Alones and three not-so-great ones, why did Disney decide to add to the franchise?

At this point, Disney’s new Home Sweet Home Alone movie feels more like a way to make money and less to bring back the popular franchise.

This new movie fails to deliver the elements the first two movies had, Kevin McCalister and good, hilarious villains. The new Kevin McCalister is Max Mercer. While Kevin got in trouble a lot, he was still funny, relatable, and had good intentions. Max, however, is the opposite of Kevin. He is seen as a rich and whiny kid who yells at his mom and doesn’t appreciate his family.

The new “sticky bandits” don’t even deserve the title of villains. They are just a loving couple, who are going through a rough patch and don’t want to sell their home or tell their kids. This couple believes that Max stole a doll that could be sold for enough money to save their house. Max is accidentally left home alone after his family travels to Japan over Christmas break. Max thinks Jeff and Pam, the couple, are trying to kidnap him, when really they just want to get the doll before they are forced to sell the house. Max sets up many crazy traps around the house, just like Kevin does.

When the so-called villains try to take their doll back, they end up getting hurt over and over. Although, instead of laughing at the villains getting hurt over and over, the audience winces. Who wants to see two genuinely kind people get hit in the head with pool balls by an entitled kid? In the end, the couple realizes that Max in fact hasn’t stolen the doll. The crazy part? The sweet couple ends up thanking him and apologizing.