Home Alone (1990)
December 7, 2015 7:59 PM - Subscribe
An 8-year old troublemaker must protect his home from a pair of burglars when he is accidentally left home alone by his family during Christmas vacation.
With a 54/79 split on Rotten Tomatoes, 63/8.9 on Metacritic, and Common Sense rated for 10+, sure to be fun(?) for the whole(??) family.
This Holiday Black Comedy for Modern Children was rated 2.5 stars by Roger Ebert.
Holy Cow, Home Alone Is 25! (metafilter), and How Many Times would Harry and Marv have died? (from a professional) (metafilter), which lends credence to the idea that Kevin grows up to be a (specific) serial killer (metafilter), and that Home Alone is a slasher film (metafilter).
Anyway it's a sign of the dual nature of Home Alone, a kiddie Die Hard - right down to the Christmas setting.
Also watch the movie-in-a-movie Angels with Filthy Souls
With a 54/79 split on Rotten Tomatoes, 63/8.9 on Metacritic, and Common Sense rated for 10+, sure to be fun(?) for the whole(??) family.
This Holiday Black Comedy for Modern Children was rated 2.5 stars by Roger Ebert.
Holy Cow, Home Alone Is 25! (metafilter), and How Many Times would Harry and Marv have died? (from a professional) (metafilter), which lends credence to the idea that Kevin grows up to be a (specific) serial killer (metafilter), and that Home Alone is a slasher film (metafilter).
Anyway it's a sign of the dual nature of Home Alone, a kiddie Die Hard - right down to the Christmas setting.
Also watch the movie-in-a-movie Angels with Filthy Souls
This is the first movie I remember being held over at my hometown theater for months. That doesn't happen anymore anywhere.
posted by infinitewindow at 9:36 PM on December 7, 2015
posted by infinitewindow at 9:36 PM on December 7, 2015
My family watched this with my three nieces (5, 7 and 9 years old) this past weekend. We had to cajole them into watching -- they thought it would be too scary -- but they ended up loving it and got a huge kick out of the slapstick. Afterwards they were talking about how they'd like to set up some traps, "but maybe not the fire ones". They were pretty shocked at how rude and mean the kids in Kevin's family are to each other.
I finally realized that Kevin doesn't call the police because he's afraid they're after him for shoplifting the toothbrush.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 10:36 AM on December 8, 2015 [3 favorites]
I finally realized that Kevin doesn't call the police because he's afraid they're after him for shoplifting the toothbrush.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 10:36 AM on December 8, 2015 [3 favorites]
Where does Kevin get all of those mannequins
I think they show the mannequins in the basement during one of the scary furnace scenes.
This was a childhood favorite of mine that I still watch once a year (never around Christmas though - I always forget it's supposed to be a seasonal movie). Now when I watch this I can't help but notice how much airport security standards have changed and now that I have a child, I can't imagine being so rushed that I don't do a child check more often than at the front door of our house and again at cruising altitude. I'm really not sure if it's worse that Kevin believed he made his family vanish or that he learned shortly after the credits ran that they were on their way to Paris before realizing he wasn't there.
posted by toomanycurls at 12:21 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
I think they show the mannequins in the basement during one of the scary furnace scenes.
This was a childhood favorite of mine that I still watch once a year (never around Christmas though - I always forget it's supposed to be a seasonal movie). Now when I watch this I can't help but notice how much airport security standards have changed and now that I have a child, I can't imagine being so rushed that I don't do a child check more often than at the front door of our house and again at cruising altitude. I'm really not sure if it's worse that Kevin believed he made his family vanish or that he learned shortly after the credits ran that they were on their way to Paris before realizing he wasn't there.
posted by toomanycurls at 12:21 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
When i first re-watched this as an adult (saw it as a kid a million times cause it was Huge and Always On at Christmas) the first take-way is how freaking rich Kevin's family is.
posted by The Whelk at 1:33 PM on December 8, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 1:33 PM on December 8, 2015 [4 favorites]
Watched this at age 9 or 10 and just couldn't get over how horribly injured the two guys must have been by the end. Found Kevin deeply annoying and the injuries unsettling.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:04 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:04 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
I always loved the Yosemite Sam-style swearing.
posted by pmurray63 at 8:31 AM on December 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by pmurray63 at 8:31 AM on December 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
I just watched this for the first time in two decades and I was sincerely surprised by how well it holds up. Macaulay Culkin did a great job playing Kevin and the way the movie veers from Christmas schmaltz to Looney Tunes slapstick and back actually works. Like threemix said, Kevin really believes he's the last person left from his family, which plays into his attempts not to be discovered (a) up the heartwarming quotient, and (b) provide some groundwork for his deathtraps.
(Speaking of groundwork, the mannequins definitely did show up in his first trip to the basement.)
Plus the McAllisters would almost have to be ostentatiously rich to take that vacation with that many kids at Christmas. And more money justifies a bigger house with more room for flamethrowers.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:52 AM on December 16, 2015
(Speaking of groundwork, the mannequins definitely did show up in his first trip to the basement.)
Plus the McAllisters would almost have to be ostentatiously rich to take that vacation with that many kids at Christmas. And more money justifies a bigger house with more room for flamethrowers.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:52 AM on December 16, 2015
The Home
He is alone, the parents gone in the morning. It is nothing to him. He revels in their tedious wake. Eats milk and cream. Breaks and steals property and rubs himself in oils strange. He sleeps ‘til near the sun’s noonhigh meridian, his whited hair splintered and splayed like some infernal broomhead. At night he carnivals with dervish fervor, watches plays of mindless violence. He is wild and drunken, bestial, howling into the darkling primordial. There is no echo. He is a changeling.posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:04 AM on December 16, 2015 [2 favorites]
It is not long before the robbers come. The leader is squat and wears a gold tooth. Bestride him is another with crazed eyes and a figure gaunt like a starved and preyless mantis. Their coats are ashen and their boots trudge black against the snow. The squat signals to the redclay hovel before them, assuming its vacancy. This’s it, he says. The mantis nods. It is the hermitage of the kid.
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posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 8:13 PM on December 7, 2015 [4 favorites]