Movie Review – Home Alone (1990)

Today we’re taking a look at Home Alone, a classic Christmas film from 1990.

Almost all of us have had a point in our young life where we thought that we were smarter than everybody else.  Sometimes this was added to feelings of invincibility and the ability to take on criminals and other evil people.  But most of those were just harmless fantasies and not reality.

The film Home Alone involves an eight-year-old boy who is accidentally left home by himself when his parents and family fly to Paris, France for their Christmas vacation.  All of the return flights are booked, so the boy is forced to rely upon himself to survive for a few days.  At first it’s fun, but then reality hits.  Things are complicated when a pair of burglars have his house set as their next target.  It’s up to the boy to prove that he’s smarter and find a way to defend his home.

Directed by Chris Columbus, Home Alone was both written and produced by John Hughes.  The film stars young Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, an eight-year-old boy left home alone.  Co-starring in the film are Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern as Harry and Marv, two burglars who intend on robbing the McCallister’s home.  Supporting them in the film are John Heard as Peter McCallister, Kevin’s father; Catherine O’Hara as Kate McCallister, Kevin’s mother; John Candy as Gus Polinski, a polka musician; and Roberts Blossom as Old Man Marley, Kevin’s older and mysterious neighbor.

Home Alone (1990) – (c) 20th Century Fox

Home Alone begins in Chicago, Illinois a few days before Christmas as the extended McCallister family is gathering before their morning flight to Paris, France.

The large home is filled with parents as kids as the excitement builds for their upcoming trip.  Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin), one of the youngest kids there, is continually picked on by his older brothers and sisters as well as one of his uncles.  Nobody has time for the boy, nor do they seem to want anything to do with him.

A local policeman (Joe Pesci) has a brief word with Peter McCallister (John Heard), but it’s just a safety warning about making sure that the home is secure to protect against burglars.  Peter assures the police officer that they have lights on timers and the doors will be locked tight while they’re away in Paris.

Home Alone (1990) – (c) 20th Century Fox

At the dinner table, Kevin gets into a fight with Buzz (Devin Ratray), his older brother.  There’s a minor shoving match and drinks accidentally spill on the family’s passports.  Naturally, Kevin is blamed for the problem, and he’s even more upset when his mother, Kate (Catherine O’Hara), insists that he spends the night on the home’s third floor.  Kevin is angry and tells his mother that he wishes that they would all disappear so that he can live alone.

That night a wind storm causes an ice-covered tree branch to fall on some power lines, cutting the power in the McCallister’s house.  Kate and Peter awaken to the noise of their airport shuttle knocking on the front door.  Suddenly they realize what happened and jump out of bed.  Everybody in the house scrambles to get dressed and dash to the airport.  Once everybody is outside, one of the girls does a head count to make sure that everybody is there.  What she doesn’t know, and what nobody else notices, is that a neighbor’s kid is visiting and accidentally gets counted as one of the McCallisters.

Home Alone (1990) – (c) 20th Century Fox

The head count is accurate, so everybody climbs into the airport shuttle vans and they head to the airport.  The entire family runs through the terminal and barely catches their flight to Paris.  All of the kids ride back in coach while the parents enjoy the good life while riding in first class.

Back at their home, Kevin wakes up and walks around his house, wondering why everybody is hiding from him.  At first he thinks it’s an elaborate prank because of his bad behavior, but then he finds his parents’ cars still in the garage.  Kevin then believes that his wish came true and his family really disappeared.

Home Alone (1990) – (c) 20th Century Fox

It’s party time as Kevin runs around like wild and does everything that’s forbidden.  There’s nobody there to stop him from going through Buzz’s room and his personal stuff.  Nor is anybody going to tell him to stop eating garbage food or watching violent gangster films.

Meanwhile, two burglars named Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern) have the whole neighborhood canvassed.  Harry had been posing as a fake policeman to talk to the home owners and learn if they would be away for the holidays.  He even has all the times written down for the homes with automatic lights.  While all of the houses should provide good loot for him and Marv, Harry has his eyes set on the McCallister house.  That’s the crown jewel in the neighborhood, and he can’t wait to break in there.

Home Alone (1990) – (c) 20th Century Fox

They try to break into the house that night, but Kevin hears them outside and turns on some lights.  This spooks Harry and Marv and sends them running.  Maybe the family had their days mixed up and were really leaving the next day for France.  As the burglars flee, Kevin runs upstairs and hides underneath his parents’ bed.

On the flight to Paris, Kate suddenly realizes that they forgot Kevin.  The pilot of the airline contacts his company and they try to contact the house, but the phone lines are still down from the previous night’s storm.  Once they arrive in Paris, the family rushes to a pay phone and takes it away from a customer.  They try to call all of their neighbors and friends in the area, but apparently every single person is away on vacation.  Kate contacts the police department and arranges for an officer to stop by the house and check on Kevin.

Kate chooses to remain at the airport and continue trying to find a flight back home even though they’re all full.  Right now the best she can do is try to fly on stand-by.  Peter has found tickets for the rest of the family to fly home, but it’s on a Christmas morning flight.  He and the rest of the family head to their apartment there in Paris while Kate continues with her personal mission of finding a way back home.

Home Alone (1990) – (c) 20th Century Fox

A police officer stops by the house, but Kevin is too afraid to answer the door.  He was spooked earlier when the two burglars tried to break into his house.  After realizing how childish it is to be hiding underneath a bed, Kevin goes outside and announces that he’s no longer afraid.  His bravery is quickly tested when Old Man Marley (Roberts Blossom) comes walking around the corner and dragging his garbage can full of salt.  The rumor going around the neighborhood is that Old Man Marely killed his family, and the bodies were hidden in the can of salt.  When he salts the icy sidewalks he’s really spreading the remains of his family members.  Kevin is spooked by the sudden appearance of Old Man Marley, and he runs back inside of his house.

The next day, Kevin takes some of Buzz’s money and heads to the store to purchase a toothbrush.  He asks a question about it when he’s again startled by the appearance of Old Man Marley.  Kevin runs out of the store with the toothbrush and is chased on foot by a police officer.  He gets away but feels bad for his actions, going so far as calling himself a criminal.

Home Alone (1990) – (c) 20th Century Fox

Over at a neighbor’s house, Harry and Marv are having fun while stealing a bunch of items.  Marv overhears a telephone call being recorded on the answering machine.  He and Harry both hear the voice of Peter McCallister as he asks his neighbor to check on his son.  Before leaving the house, Marv stops up the drains and turns on the faucets, allowing the water to flood the house.  This move labels him and Harry as the Wet Bandits.

As Kevin is walking home and feeling sorry for his actions, he’s nearly hit by Harry and Marv’s van.  He then notices that Harry was the same guy as the policeman who stopped by his home before his family magically disappeared.  The policeman is really a burglar!  Now that Kevin knows what’s really happening, he’ll be ready.

Home Alone (1990) – (c) 20th Century Fox

That night Kevin has all of the lights on and has mannequins and other cardboard figurines posing as his family having a party.  From outside the house it’s a convincing effect.  Harry and Marv are puzzled at all of the activity and don’t know what to believe.  Did the family really fly home that quickly from France?  Or is something else happening there?  They call off robbing the place that night and escape into the night.

Home Alone (1990) – (c) 20th Century Fox

Reality sets in as Kevin learns how to take care of himself.  He orders his own cheese pizza (and scares away the pizza deliverer), and later he takes more money to go grocery shopping.  He’s able to walk to and from the store and take care of the errand.  Back at home, Kevin learns to overcome his fear of the basement’s furnace while he’s taking care of some laundry.

Home Alone (1990) – (c) 20th Century Fox

Meanwhile, Kate has successfully talked her way onto some flights and made it back to the U.S.  Unfortunately, she can’t find a way to Chicago.  She’s stuck in Scranton, Pennsylvania and it looks hopeless until a musician named Gus Polinski (John Candy) overhears her problem.  Gus is a polka musician and his band is going to rent a van to drive themselves to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  He offers to give Kate a ride to her home in Chicago as it’s along their way.  Kate is overjoyed and gladly accepts his offer.

Back at the McCallister’s house, Harry and Marv do some more snooping around.  They realize that they’ve been fooled by an eight-year-old the whole time.  He’s home alone while his parents are in France.  Kevin overhears them discussing their plan to return around nine pm that night when it’s dark and then rob the place.

Home Alone (1990) – (c) 20th Century Fox

That afternoon Kevin heads out to speak with a local Santa.  It’s Christmas Eve and he needs the fake Santa to send a message for him to the real Santa.  Kevin tells him that he doesn’t want any presents that year.  He only wants the return of his family including his cousins and aunts.  If Santa has some extra room, then his Uncle Frank as well.

Home Alone (1990) – (c) 20th Century Fox

Kevin then heads to his church and sits in a pew.  While listening to the choir sing Christmas carols, Kevin notices Old Man Marley also in the church.  He gets up and asks to sit next to Kevin, which Kevin agrees.  Old Man Marley explains that the rumors against him are not true.  He had a disagreement with his brother years ago, and his brother’s family moved to a different neighborhood.  That’s his granddaughter singing in the choir but she doesn’t know her grandfather.  Kevin learns that Marley is really a good guy, and he convinces him to call his son and settle their differences.

Home Alone (1990) – (c) 20th Century Fox

It’s dark as Kevin heads home and begins setting booby traps in anticipation of the return of Harry and Marv.  He uses his imagination and mechanical skills and everything he can get his hands on to create a weapon or diversion.  By the time he’s finished it’s nine pm and the burglars have arrived.

Home Alone (1990) – (c) 20th Century Fox

Harry and Marv first try to break in through the back door, but Kevin shoots them through a doggy door with Buzz’s air rifle.  Then they split up.  Marv tries to break in through the basement while Harry goes for the front door.  Marv’s path involves icy stairs and then sticky tar.  When his bare foot steps onto a nail, Marv is forced to retreat.  Harry’s path isn’t any easier.  After going up some icy stairs, Harry’s hand is burned when he grabs a glowing hot doorknob.  Harry then tries an alternate door, but opening it triggers a blowtorch that burns Harry’s hair.

Home Alone (1990) – (c) 20th Century Fox

Both Harry and Marv eventually get into the house, but on the first floor they’re hit with one trap after another.  They’re both hit in the face with paint cans when they climb the stairs.  While they’re recovering from the hits, Kevin uses the phone to call the police, but he gives them a neighbor’s address.  Kevin runs across the floor and past the tripwire.  The tripwire stops Harry but Marv jumps over it.  He grabs Kevin’s ankle and holds him from running.  Kevin spots Buzz’s pet tarantula and places it on Marv’s face, spooking the man.

Kevin escapes up the attic stairs as Marv tries to kill the large spider.  Instead, he hits Harry with a crowbar.  Both of them then head up the stairs and try to catch Kevin.  The boy is a step ahead of them and uses a zipline to escape the house and make it to his treehouse across the yard.  When Harry and Marv try to cross the rope, Kevin cuts it with a pair of hedge trimmers.

Home Alone (1990) – (c) 20th Century Fox

It’s a chase as Kevin leads the burglars to his neighbor’s house, the same address that he gave to the police department.  What Kevin doesn’t know is that Harry and Marv have already robbed the house.  They take a different path and are waiting for the boy inside the house.  They grab Kevin and pin him against a wall.  Before they can torture him the way that he did to them, Old Man Marley shows up.  He uses his snow shovel to knock out Harry and Marv.  He rescues Kevin and removes him from the house before the police arrive.

Back in his own house, Kevin watches through a window as Harry and Marv are arrested by the police.  Marv makes sure to tell the cops that he and Harry are the Wet Bandits.  Unfortunately to them, that gives the police a big clue as to who had been robbing homes in the area and leaving the water running.  That means more jail time for the two burglars.

Kevin spends the rest of the night cleaning his home and preparing the decorations for Santa.

Home Alone (1990) – (c) 20th Century Fox

On Christmas morning Kevin awakens, but his family still isn’t there.  Nobody is outside in the snowy weather, either.  As Kevin is upstairs and thinking that he’ll never see his family again, his mother enters through the front door.  She’s proud of how the house looks and that Kevin is okay.  As they make up their differences from a few days ago, the rest of the family arrives at home.  All of them took the Christmas morning flight from France.  Naturally, everybody is pleased to see Kevin.  Even Buzz is impressed that Kevin didn’t burn down the house.

Home Alone ends as Kevin looks out the window and watches as Old Man Marley reunites with his son and his family.  He took Kevin’s advice and it worked.

So is Home Alone a good Christmas movie?

As a whole, Home Alone is quite entertaining and presents some good wholesome values, but the film also has its share of problems.

First of all, Kevin’s whole family is full of jerks.  From his siblings to his parents to his cousins to his aunts and uncles, pretty much every single person needs an attitude adjustment.  It’s almost too bad that we wee them return at the end of the film.  Kevin would have been better off with a new adoptive family rather than those other jerks.

Second, pretty much the whole film is full of flaws.  There are about a thousand different ways that the events could have been changed to have been made more realistic for its time period and a more believable film.  Here are some examples:

• boarding the flight to Paris — The airline worker would have checked each ticket (yes, even back in those times) before each person was allowed to board the plane.  The parents would have noticed that Kevin wasn’t there because of the extra ticket.

• the pizza delivery guy — Wouldn’t he have reported being shot at by the person in the kitchen?  Wouldn’t he have called the cops?

• Old Man Marley — This is a guy who is always outside and keeping an eye on the neighborhood.  How come he never noticed the very obvious burglars until the very end?

• Kevin’s ingenuity — How in the world is an eight-year-old going to pull off half of the stunts he did against the burglars?  Harry is smart enough to dress as a police officer to do his reconnaissance, yet he’s stupid enough to fall for all of Kevin’s antics and booby traps.  Is Kevin really that smart, or is everybody else really stupid?

• the big robbery — If Kevin knew that burglars were going to rob his home, even providing an exact time, why didn’t he call the cops?  He could have asked for an officer to wait in the area to catch them in the act.  Kevin already had enough to prove by surviving by himself and dealing with real world problems.

• the family — They’re all jerks.  It’s hard to believe that Kevin is related to any of them.

Those are just a few examples of problems in the film.  Of course, this is a comedy film focusing on an eight-year-old boy outsmarting a pair of burglars, so naturally there are going to be problems when it comes to realism.  The story though about how Kevin is left home alone is a bit far-fetched.

The real stars of Home Alone are Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern in the roles of Harry and Marv.  Those two guys are hilarious in this film, and they really steal the scenes.  The main reason why this film is so much fun is because of the burglars.

Home Alone was a smash hit when it was released to the theaters back in 1990.  I remember seeing it in the theater with my family on Christmas Eve.  It was a special occasion for us to go to the movies back then, and my parents wanted to treat my brother and I to this film after all of the good reviews that it received.

Home Alone (1990) – movie trailer

Home Alone is a family-friendly film that’s best enjoyed around the Christmas holiday.  Harry and Marv make parts of the film hilarious, while Kevin’s heartwarming personality may even bring a tear to your eye.  This is a quality film, and despite the numerous flaws, this is still a Christmas classic.  If you haven’t already, go get yourself a copy of Home Alone and see what all of the fuss was about.

Kate McCallister – “Heather, did you count heads?”
Heather McCallister – “Eleven, including me. Five boys, six girls, four parents, two drivers, and a partridge in a pear tree.”

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Kevin McCallister – “This is my house. I have to defend it.”

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Marv – “He’s only a kid, Harry. We can take him.”