Home Alone

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Christmas 2017

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This is one of those precious gems from my childhood. I still remember owning the VHS copy of this that came with a poster for Kevin's battle plan. As for the tape itself, I'm pretty confident that my brother and I wore it out, watching it. It was probably mostly me though. I freaking loved this movie back in the day. It was probably the idea that a kid around my age had the sheer cajones and smarts to mess up a couple of criminals trying to rob his household blind. Bear in mind that when this came out, I was still at a stage of my life where I was being babysat. Being left home alone was a very intriguing concept at the time.

Anyway, for those who have somehow managed to avoid it's infinite television appearances over the past few Christmases, this one features Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin). While in a hustle to reach their flight to Paris, France for a Christmas vacation, the family leaves Kevin behind. While they struggle to get back to him after realizing their mistake, Kevin ends up having to defend his house against two bumbling burglars named Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern). How does he do this exactly? By setting up traps that would realistically cause gashes, bruises, broken limbs, burns, and all sorts of fun stuff. However, this is a family movie, so we're not here for "realistic"

Truth be told, I still get a kick out of this movie. It's not exactly an annual watch for me, but I'll watch it through, provided it's on. It just doesn't have as much of an impact on me now because A) I'm not a kid, and being left home alone is no longer a big adventurous opportunity, and B) I have no kids of my own, so I can't fully get the parental perspective of the dread of leaving your kid behind. That said, however, a lot of the dialogue and moments are very memorable, and it's a great nostalgic time.

It seems to me that if there's a Christmas movie out there that EVERYONE and their mother has seen, it's probably this one. It was actually kind of a big deal when I was a kid. In fact, the combination of this and 'Ninja Turtles' as two of the most popular things to kids of the time was what brought along another childhood product of the early 90s, '3 Ninjas'. Anyway, there seems to be an obvious "Christmas classic" status to this movie, as it's carried through into the next generation quite nicely.

It's by no means what I would consider the perfect Christmas movie, but again, there are some great moments here that are both funny and dramatic. Perhaps one may remember the 'Seinfeld' episode where George is caught crying at the end of the movie. Well, it may seem embarrassing, but that's a pretty warranted tear-up considering what goes on. It's just a really fun time for the whole family. Just... don't try this stuff at home, kids.

​4/5

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